"Poland on Friday gave the go ahead for large-scale logging in the Bialowieza forest intended to combat a spruce bark beetle infestation, despite scientists, ecologists and the EU protesting the move in Europe's last primeval woodland.

'We're acting to curb the degradation of important habitats, to curb the disappearance and migration of important species from this site,' Jan Szyszko, environment minister with Poland's right-wing government told journalists.

Szyszko vowed that the logging plans would not apply to strictly protected areas of the primeval forest that was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979."

AFP had the story March 25, 2016. [2]