The real environmental movement was born with the socio-political changes that occurred in 1980-81, when the "Solidarity" Independent Trade Union came to life. In the face of visible environmental degradation, authorities lifted the ban on information and stopped treating the environment as a political issue. In September 1980, the Polish Ecological Club was founded in Krakow (it wasn't registered until May 1981), bringing together different environmental experts, academics, lawyers, physicians and teachers. Sixteen regional chapters covering all of Poland were soon opened. With between 2,000 and 4,000 members, the Polish Ecological Club became the biggest independent environmental NGO in Poland in the 1980s.
Another important date was 1986, the year of the Chernobyl disaster. The explosion at this Ukrainian nuclear reactor sent clouds of radioactivity over much of Poland (and the rest of Europe), and it illuminated the dangers present when authorities activities' are beyond public control. After this crisis, independent environmental activities became more radical, and environmental demonstrations were organized by the "Freedom and Peace" movement.
By mid-1989, the green movement numbered about 80 purely environmental NGOs and about 80 other organizations and groups that dealt with environmental issues as part of their activities. June 4, 1989, the date of Poland's historic parliamentary elections, marked the beginning of political transition in Poland and a new chapter in the history of the Polish environmental movement. In the new political climate, NGOs were able to publicize the truth about environmental problems in the mass media, establish contacts with more experienced Western organizations, and utilize international financial and technical assistance. These factors, along with many others, resulted in an unprecedented growth of independent environmental NGOs and initiatives in the 1990s, when most of the existing environmental NGOs were created and registered.
A variety of different groups and organizations exist in the Polish environmental movement. The biggest are the League of Nature Protection and the Polish Ecological Club, each with a three-tiered structure - national board, regional chapters and local circles - covering the entire territory of Poland. There is also the Green Federation, which is not a formal organization like the two mentioned above, but a voluntary federation of various registered environmental organizations and informal groups. In the Polish green movement you will find expert, think-tank type organizations, like the Polish Environmental Law Association or the Institute for Sustainable Development, as well as associations and foundations that have mixed memberships (experts and enthusiasts), including nature conservation organizations like the North-Podlasian Bird Protection Society or the Lubusian Naturalists' Club. There are also many environmental organizations whose members are not experts but nature enthusiasts. This is true especially for small informal groups, but also for some older organizations that deal with so called "gray ecology" (problems like waste and transport); these groups were born from protest and not necessarily as a result of professional interests.
Poland does not have a national umbrella organization. Instead, Green Net was established at the end of 1995 as an outcome of the National Environmental NGO Meeting held that May, by an agreement signed at the Service Office of the Environmental Movement (SOEM) based in Warsaw. Green Net is composed of the SOEM, nine regional environmental NGO information centers, and the Environmental Law Information Service (ELIS), run by the Polish Environmental Law Association. Each center, including the SOEM, is responsible for information services and strengthening local NGO initiatives in its region. In addition, the SOEM acts as a link between NGOs and national government institutions, such as Parliament and the ministries. On the one hand it supplies information to the regional centers, and to interested NGOs that are not covered by the Green Net, and on the other it helps MPs and government officials to involve NGOs in their activities, for instance, in important meetings or conferences held in Warsaw. SOEM provides space for different NGO meetings and facilitates contacts with the national media. ELIS provides legal information services to the green NGO community in Poland. Green Net also has a program council, composed of plenipotentiaries of the Net's participant organizations, that meets regularly to exchange experiences and discuss important issues.
At the same time, NGOs that focus on nature conservation established the Working Group for the Protection of Species and their Habitats (GROGS). This group supports the campaigns of its member NGOs. Every year a coordinator is appointed to make inquiries, lobby, exert pressure and keep in contact with national-level decision-makers on behalf of GROGS and its members. Both GROGS and Green Net are not legal entities; rather, they are informal mechanisms established by the NGOs themselves through joint written agreements.
The Polish legal framework offers NGOs two legal structures, either as "associations" or as "foundations." An association is a membership organization that must have at least 15 founding members to be registered. The operation of such an organization is based on democratic procedures. A foundation, on the other hand, requires founding capital and can be established by one person, a group of individuals, one or more legal entities, or any combination of these options. It is not a membership type of organization, and the actual power belongs to those who contributed the founding capital; the founders are, in fact, the owners of the foundation. Not all foundations are real NGOs. Some foundations were created by the State (i.e. by local and national government agencies) to become eligible for international funds available only to NGOs; others were set up by businesses attempting to use the term "environment" as a password to avoid taxes on purely commercial activities. This has created a bad image for all foundations, though most of them are honest and do useful work.
Today, registered groups enjoy more recognition by the authorities, but this is still not sufficient; to be real partners NGOs need access to information. At the beginning of 1992, following pressure from NGOs, the minister of environmental protection set up a one-person office to facilitate contact with environmental NGO leaders and to inform them about the work being carried out by the Ministry of Environmental Protection. This is accomplished through meetings with ministers and ministry officials organized specifically for NGOs. In early 1993, 12 NGO problem groups were created, each with a different environmental focus. Of 10 meetings, five were plenaries and five were organized so that problem groups could discuss specific issues with ministry officials. Between 1992 and 1995, 20 meetings were held, with the total participation of about 850 people1.
Following the Sofia Conference, and on the initiative of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Natural Resources and Forestry, a call for tender was announced for a practical system of cooperation between the ministry and NGOs. The tender was awarded to the Polish Association of Environmental Law. NGOs and the ministry have been consulted for the draft description of the proposed system and it is now being refined before the final consultation takes place. The system is expected to be in place by February 1997.
NGOs in Poland depend less on grants from the REC and foreign funding organizations than the average CEE NGO. This may be explained by the fact that the REC is only one of several sources of foreign aid available in Poland, and that there are a variety of domestic funding sources available, including the National Fund of Environmental Protection, Voivodship (Provincial) Funds of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and the Ecofund.
Overall, NGOs first require support for local environmental projects and for improving institutional capacity, followed by special training for leaders. In decreasing order of importance, NGOs desire training in the areas of fund raising and proposal writing, media relations, networking and, finally, financial management and strategic planning.
These results can be explained by the fact that most NGOs (63 percent) were established before 1992. In recent years they have become familiar with one another. Networking has been facilitated by the national environmental NGO newsletter "Zielone Brygady" (Green Brigades) and by annual national environmental NGO meetings, as well as by the Service Office of the Environmental Movement. Over the years, NGOs have learned not only to exchange information but also to create networks and run joint projects.
The results concerning cooperation with governmental bodies indicates that the cooperative spirit in Poland is generally stronger than average. The most natural partners of NGOs are local governments and local government agencies. Over the years, many NGOs have been able to establish working links with them, acquire negotiation skills, and better exercise their rights. These partners are also possible sources of funding for local projects. The largest difference between Poland and the CEE average exists with respect to cooperation between NGOs and the national government - 8 percent of Polish NGOs cooperate closely with the Polish government and an additional 31 percent cooperate occasionally, compared to CEE averages of 4 percent and 19 percent, respectively. Of course, this does not mean that everything goes smoothly, but it does show a willingness on the part of Polish NGOs to maintain on-going contact with their counterparts in the government.
