World Wildlife Foundation Polska has announced that the Mazury lakes, northern Poland, lose an average of 0.05 percent of territory annually.

A conference entitled ‘Let’s make a good climate: The influence of global warming on the Mazury Great Lakes District’ started today in Ogonki, a village in the region organized by WWF Polska.

The organization claims that the region’s lakes have decreased in size by 44 percent over the past 100 years due to effects of global climate change.

“In the last hundred years, small forest lakes have dried up and become bogs and marshes,” stated Wojciech Stepniewski, a participant in the conference and member of WWF Polska. According to Stepniewski, this has happened too fast, but, compared to other regions in Poland, the Mazury lakes are drying up very slowly.

“In Greater Poland and Kujawy [northern Poland], the average shrinkage of the lakes is 0.15 percent annually,” added Stepniewski.

The representative of WWF Polska stated that the statistics come from many years of observations and documentations by climatologists and information from the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management.

“Everything is pointing to the fact that we can expect larger gales, hurricanes and larger squalls on the lakes,” added Stepniewski.

Councilman of Gizycko, one of the most popular towns in the region, Marian Lemech, highlighted the fact that it is difficult to maintain an ecological balance in Mazury because there is simply not enough money.

“Not once has the state budget allocated money for the preservation of Mazury, and it is such a beautiful, important region for the nation,” Lemech stated.

Lemech as well called for changes to be made to water regulations, for example, that sailors would be required to throw garbage and empty sewage only in ports in special containers.

“There is nothing to hide – at this point in time, most sailors throw their trash overboard into the water,” added the councilman.

WWF Polska, in cooperation with the Society for the Friends of Mazury and the Mazury Artillery Brigade in Wegorzewo, organized the conference as well as an eco-rock concert later this summer under the banner ‘Eko Union of Rock.’ (mmj)