Sustainable rural development - provocative statement #1

At the end of the Polish-German youth exchange in Bialowieza (Podlasie region, North-East Poland) we tried to sum up the contents of the week and to spark a final discussion among the participants. For this purpose, we issued seven controversial (and rather provocative) statements about different aspects of sustainable (?) rural development. Here comes statement number one (already quoted in this previous post by Manuela, one of our German participants):

"For the best heritage protection, we need czars, kings, and Hermann Görings"

This statement, of course, alludes to the fact that today's Bialowieza National Park (and the huge forest which it is part of) owes its existence to the fact that it was a hunting reserve for Big Men since the 15th century. The last one in a long series of emperors, dictators and other nice fellows was Hermann Göring, who liked to hunt here during the German occupation of Poland between 1939 and 1944/1945.

And here is how the participants commented on this provocative thesis:

Final project discussion - sheet #1 (click here to enlarge)

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Die Begegnung "Treffpunkt Białowieża - ein Ort für Mensch und Natur" wird ermöglicht durch die finanzielle Unterstützung des Deutsch-Polnischen Jugendwerks im Rahmen des Wettbewerbs "Treffpunkt übermorgen - Spotkajmy się pojutrze" sowie der Stiftung für deutsch-polnische Zusammenarbeit.