THE WILD BORDER OF POLITICS

THE BIAŁOWIEŻA FOREST AND CHANGING ECOLOGIES OF PROTEST

Authors

  • Eunice Blavascunas WHITMAN COLLEGE
  • Benjamin Cope INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY, POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9705-6796

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.23858/ethp.2022.43.3006

Keywords:

protest, forest, gaiapolitics, bark beetle, Białowieża, Poland, Belarus, refugees

Abstract

The challenge of the politics of the Anthropocene is how to respond to the protests of nature: how to elaborate modes of thought, collective action and social institutions through which non-human agents can be integrated into political communities, even as non-humans exceed our understanding and remain a subject of difference. This paper looks at how the contested borderland forest, Białowieża, at the Polish-Belarusian border helps us think across protest culture during post-socialism. We examine the Białowieża forest as a site of, participant in and provoker of a series of protests: those against national park expansion, against logging, in support of bark beetle rewilding, of far right radical movements and for or against Middle Eastern and African asylum seekers crossing through the forest since EU sanctions were imposed on Belarus in 2021. We do so in order to suggest that these protests should be read as a continuum that enables reflection into why this forest is a key site of protest; that exploring them as a continuum reveals something about an emergent ecology of protest; and that this exploration offers an insight into what is at stake if we see the forest itself as protesting.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Ackermann, Felix, Mark Berman, and Olga Sasunkevich. 2017. “In Search of Agency: Examining Belarusian Society from Below”. Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society 3 (1):1-21.

Agamben, Giorgio. 2005. State of Exception. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Balaud, Léna, Antoine Chopot. 2021. Nous ne sommes pas seuls. Politique des soulèvements terrestres. Paris: Seuil.

Bekus, Nelly, Misha Gabowitsch. 2021. “Introduction: The Sociology of Belarusian Protests”. Slavic Review 80 (1): 1 – 3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/slr.2021.27

Belovezhskaya Pushcha Natsionalny Park. 2021. Belovezhskaya pushcha edinyy transgranichny organism zhivoy prirody. https://npbp.by/about/news/belovezhskaya-pushcha-edinyy-transgranichnyy-organizm-zhivoy-prirody/ (accessed 31.01.2022).

Białowieski Park Narodowy. 2021.

https://bpn.com.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3956&Itemid=1 (accessed 31.01.2022).

Blavascunas, Eunice. 2021. Foresters, Peasants, and Bark Beetles. The Future of Europe’s Last Primeval Forest. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Bütler R., R. Schlaepfer. 2002. “Three-toed Woodpeckers as an alternative to bark beetle control by traps?” Forschungsberichte-nationalpark berchtesgaden 1, no. 48: 13-26.

Czapliński, Przemysław, Joanna Bednarek and Dawid Gostyński (eds). 2019. O jeden las za daleko. Demokracja, kapitalizm, nieposłuszeństwo ekologiczne w Polsce. Warsaw: Książka i Prasa.

de la Cadena, Marisol. 2015. Earth Beings: Ecologies of Practice across Andean Worlds. Durham: Duke University Press.

Degórski, Przemysław. 2019. „Kornik w lesie antropocenu”. In O jeden las za daleko. Demokracja, kapitalizm, nieposłuszeństwo ekologiczne w Polsce, edited by Przemysław Czapliński, Joanna Bednarek and Dawid Gostyński, 127-148. Warsaw: Książka i Prasa.

Dębińska, Maria. 2021. “Witnessing from Within: Hyperobjects and Climate Activism in Poland”. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 11/2: 445-460.

Descola, Philippe. 2013. Beyond Nature and Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Fahse, Lorenz, Marco Heurich. 2011. “Simulation and analysis of outbreaks of bark beetle infestations and their management at the stand level.” Ecological Modelling Vol. 222, Issue 11: 1833-1864. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2011.03.014.

Gabowitsch, Misha. 2021. “Belarusian Protest: Regimes of Engagement and Coordination”. Slavic Review 80 (1): 27 – 37. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/slr.2021.28.

Gapova, Elena. 2021. “Class, Agency, and Citizenship in Belarusian Protest”. Slavic Review 80 (1): 45 – 51. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/slr.2021.21.

Ghosh, Amitav. 2017. The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Grupa Granica. 2021. Humanitarian Crisis at the Polish Belarusian Border. https://www.grupagranica.pl/files/Grupa-Granica-Report-Humanitarian-crisis-at-the-Polish-Belarusian-border.pdf (accessed 31.01.2022).

Ilyash, Igor. 2021. The Totalitarian Experiment in Belarus.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/totalitarian-experiment-belarus/ (accessed 31.01.2022).

Jaroszewicz, Bogdan, Katarzyna Nowak and Michał Żmihorski. 2021. Poland’s Border Wall Threatens Ancient Forest. Science 374 (6571): 1063.

Kohn, Eduardo. 2013. How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Konczal, Agata. 2018. Antropologia lasu. Leśnicy a percepcja i kształtowanie wizerunków przyrody w Polsce. Warszawa: Instytut Badań Literackich PAN.

Krzysiak, Michał, Łukasz Rejt, Sławomir Bakier and Magdalena Larska. 2022. “Nature Conservation in Times of Migration Crisis on the Eastern EU Border – a Commentary to Jaroszewicz et al.”. Letter to the American Association for the Advancement of Science website,

https://www.science.org/do/10.1126/583c4bbe-d509-43a3-b67c-7dcc6afaf337/full/ (accessed 31.01.2022).

Lasy Państwowe. 2021a. https://www.lasy.gov.pl/pl/wideo/telewizja-lasow-panstwowych/wideo/europejski-zielony-lad-szanse-i-zagrozenia-konferencja-w-wsksim-w-toruniu (accessed 31.01.2022).

Lasy Państwowe. 2021b. https://www.lasy.gov.pl/pl/wideo/telewizja-lasow-panstwowych/wideo/ciag-dalszy-wspolpracy-sluzb-na-granicy (accessed 31.01.2022).

Latour, Bruno. 2017. Facing Gaia: Eight Lectures on the New Climatic Regime. Oxford: Wiley.

Latour, Bruno. 2017b. Why Gaia is not a God of Totality. Theory, Culture and Society, 34 (2-3), 61-82.

Latour, Bruno and Peter Weibel (eds.). 2020. Critical Zones. The Science and Politics of Landing on Earth. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Michalski J., J.R. Starzyk, A. Kolk, W. Grodzki. 2004. „Zagrożenie świerka przez kornika drukarza – Ips typographus (L.) w drzewostanach Leśnego Kompleksu Promocyjnego „Puszcza Białowieska” w latach 2000–2002”. Leśne Prace Badawcze 3: 5–30.

Mierzyńska, Anna. 2021. ’To białorusinka więc realizuje antypolska agende Lukaszenki!’ Nagonka na bohaterke reportarzu tvn 24. OKO.Press.

https://oko.press/to-bialorusinka-wiec-realizuje-antypolska-agende-lukaszenki-nagonka-na-bohaterke-reportazu-tvn24/ (accessed 31.01.2022).

Minchenia, Alena. 2020. “Belarusian Professional Protesters in the Structure of Democracy Promotion: Enacting Politics, Reinforcing Divisions”. Conflict and Society: Advances in Research 6: 218–235.

Minchenia, Alena and Nadia Husaukouskaya. 2020. For Many People in Belarus, Change has Already Happened. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/many-people-belarus-change-has-already-happened/ (accessed 31.01.2022).

Mironova, Iuliia. 2020. Gorod-geroi. Dmitrii Zadorin—o protestnom Minske. https://34mag.net/ru/post/gorod-geroy-minsk-dmitriy-zadorin (accessed 31.01.2022).

Mitchell, Timothy. 2011. Carbon Democracy. London: Verso.

Nixon, Rob. 2013. Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Owczinnikow, Aleksiej. 2021. Jak represje białoruskich ekoaktywystów mogą wpłynąć na sytuację w regionie. https://outride.rs/pl/jak-represje-wobec-bialoruskich-ekoaktywistow-moga-wplynac-na-sytuacje-w-regionie/(accessed 31.01.2022).

Paulovich, Natallia. 2021. “How Feminist is the Belarusian Revolution? Female Agency and Participation in the 2020 Post-Election Protests”. Slavic Review 80 (1): 38-44. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/slr.2021.22.

Rauszer, Michał. 2021. Siła podporządkowanych. Warsaw: University of Warsaw Press.

Bird Rose, Deborah. 2004. Reports from a Wild Country. Sydney: University of South Wales Press.

Sadura, Przemysław and Sylwia Urbańska. 2021. Krytyka Polityczna.

https://krytykapolityczna.pl/kraj/reportaz-badawczy-sadura-urbanska-granica-uchodzcy-wojsko-polisja-straz-graniczna/# (accessed 31.01.2022).

Schindel, Estela. 2019. “Death by ‘Nature’: The European Border Regime and the Spatial Production of Slow Violence”. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 0 (0): 1-19. Schindel, E. (2022). Death by ‘nature’: The European border regime and the spatial production of slow violence. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 40(2), 428–446. https://doi.org/10.1177/2399654419884948

Scott, James. 1985. Weapons of the Weak. Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Servigne, Pablo and Raphaël Stevens. 2015. Comment tout peut s’effondrer. Petit manuel de collapsologie à l'usage des générations présentes. Paris: Seuil.

Tsing, Anna. 2005. Friction. An Ethnography of Global Connections. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.

Tsing, Anna. 2015. The Mushroom at the End of the World. On the Possibility of Life in the Ruins of Capitalism. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.

Vivieros de Castro, Eduardo. 2014. Cannibal Metaphysics. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Downloads

Published

2022-12-30 — Updated on 2023-01-27

How to Cite

Blavascunas, E., & Cope, B. (2023). THE WILD BORDER OF POLITICS: THE BIAŁOWIEŻA FOREST AND CHANGING ECOLOGIES OF PROTEST. Ethnologia Polona, 43. https://doi.org/10.23858/ethp.2022.43.3006