Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

is part of four

terrestrial ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...

s, one

freshwater ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...

, and one

marine ecoregion A marine ecoregion is an ecoregion, or ecological region, of the oceans and seas identified and defined based on biogeographic characteristics. Introduction A more complete definition describes them as “Areas of relatively homogeneous species ...

. These ecoregions are defined by the

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wor ...

(WWF) and its partners, which include the European Environment Agency (EEA).

Terrestrial

Poland is part of the

Palearctic realm The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sib ...

, one of the eight

biogeographic realm A biogeographic realm or ecozone is the broadest biogeographic division of Earth's land surface, based on distributional patterns of terrestrial organisms. They are subdivided into bioregions, which are further subdivided into ecoregions. De ...

s that cover the earth's land surface. Poland has a humid temperate climate, and falls within two terrestrial

biome A biome () is a biogeographical unit consisting of a biological community that has formed in response to the physical environment in which they are found and a shared regional climate. Biomes may span more than one continent. Biome is a broader ...

temperate broadleaf and mixed forests Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions. These f ...

and

temperate coniferous forests Temperate coniferous forest is a terrestrial biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Temperate coniferous forests are found predominantly in areas with warm summers and cool winters, and vary in their kinds of plant life. In some, needl ...

. Most of Poland's natural vegetation is deciduous woodlands of the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome. Poland has three temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregions: * The

Central European mixed forests The Central European mixed forests ecoregion (WWF ID: PA0412) is a temperate hardwood forest covering much of northeastern Europe, from Germany to Russia. The area is only about one-third forested, with pressure from human agriculture leaving the r ...

ecoregion covers the largest portion of Poland, spanning from Lithuania to Romania, and from Germany to western Russia. * Northwestern Poland is in the

Baltic mixed forests The Baltic mixed forests is an ecoregion in Europe along the southwestern coasts of the Baltic Sea. The name was coined by the European Environment Agency and the same geographical area is designated as "Northern Europe: Germany, Denmark, Sweden, ...

ecoregion, which also includes the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...

coastal regions of northeastern Germany, eastern Denmark, and southern Sweden. * The

Western European broadleaf forests The Western European broadleaf forests is an ecoregion in Western Europe, and parts of the Alps. It comprises temperate broadleaf and mixed forests, that cover large areas of France, Germany and the Czech Republic and more moderately sized parts ...

ecoregion extends into southwestern Poland (PA0445), covering the Polish portion of the Sudetes mountains. The southeastern portion of Poland, lying in the Carpathian Mountains, is within the Carpathian montane conifer forests ecoregion, part of the

biome.

Freshwater

Poland is part of the Central & Western Europe

. It encompasses the rivers and streams of western and central Europe between the

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...

and

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages * Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...

seas to the north, and the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Swi ...

and Carpathian Mountains to the south.

Marine

Poland's coastal waters are in the

marine ecoregion. It is part of the

Temperate Northern Atlantic The Temperate Northern Atlantic is a biogeographic region of the Earth's seas, comprising the temperate and subtropical waters of the North Atlantic Ocean and connecting seas, including the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, and northern Gulf of Mexic ...

marine realm.Spalding, Mark D., Helen E. Fox, Gerald R. Allen, Nick Davidson ''et al.'' "Marine Ecoregions of the World: A Bioregionalization of Coastal and Shelf Areas". ''Bioscience'' Vol. 57 No. 7, July/August 2007, pp. 573–583.

The World Wide Fund for Nature in Poland

The WWF is an international

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from g ...

(NGO) working on issues regarding the

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...

research Research is " creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...

and

protection Protection is any measure taken to guard a thing against damage caused by outside forces. Protection can be provided to physical objects, including organisms, to systems, and to intangible things like civil and political rights. Although th ...

of the

environment Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...

. A branch of the World Wide Fund has operated in Poland since the early 1990s. In 1993, the ''WWF Polska'' succeeded in the creation of the

Biebrza National Park '' , iucn_category = II , photo = Poland Biebrza Burzyn.jpg , photo_caption = Biebrza River at Burzyn, Poland Park logo with Ruff , location = Podlaskie Voivodeship, Poland , nearest_city = Osowiec-Twierdza , map = Poland , relief = 1 , m ...

followed in 1998 by the opening of its first permanent office in Białystok, which led to the creation of additional protected areas including Ujście Warty Landscape Park,

Krzesin Landscape Park Krzesin Landscape Park ( pl, Krzesiński Park Krajobrazowy) is a protected area (Landscape Park (Poland), Landscape Park) located in western Poland which was established in 1998 and covers an area of . The park lies entirely within Lubusz Voivod ...

and the

Muskau Park Muskau Park (german: Muskauer Park, officially: ''Fürst-Pückler-Park Bad Muskau''; pl, Park Mużakowski) is a landscape park in the Upper Lusatia region of Germany and Poland. It is the largest and one of the most famous English gardens in Ce ...

(''Mużakowski Park Krajobrazowy'', added to UNESCO

World Heritage List A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

in 2004). In 2000, the new permanent office in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

became the headquarters of the foundation. An additional branch was set up in

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

which helped create the

Ujście Warty National Park The Warta Mouth National Park
Homepage at PNUjscieWarty.gov.pl. ( pl, Park Nar ...

in 2001. The next year, WWF Poland petitioned the government into signing the Kyoto Protocol. In 2004 it organized a campaign against the illegal trade in endangered species resulting in new laws enacted by Polish Parliament, and in 2008 caused the cancellation of the Via Baltica expressway across the Rospuda valley. In recent years, ''WWF Polska'' volunteers removed the estimated 20 tons of abandoned nets from the Baltic sea, among numerous other projects.

References

{{Reflist

* Poland geography-related lists