Old Growth — The Fight for Europe’s Wilderness
A timely journey through Europe’s oldest forests and most hideous blights
Central and Eastern Europe are home to the continent’s oldest forests and much of its last true wilderness. There, wild bison, wolves, deer and even bears still roam and families have foraged for mushrooms for generations. But these UNESCO-heritage forests are under increasing threat from logging, fed by our insatiable demand for cheap furniture.
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Polish-Dutch journalist Dore van Duivenbode travels through Poland, Ukraine and Romania to understand first-hand the clash between conservation and logging. She attends a boarding school for foresters in Białowieża, studies wolf scat and bison prints as a volunteer in a national park, and speaks with countless people connected to the forests: from environmental activitsts to forest rangers, hunters and residents. The situation is complex, when not dangerous. Corrupt local officials profit from the wood mafia, and in Romania forest rangers have been murdered. It’s a region where since the fall of the Soviet Union, many residents have felt themselves the unwilling pawns of Western powers – businesses, conservation NGOs, the EU.
Van Duivenbode’s months-long intellectual journey is our own. Again and again she finds her Western views challenged, the Netherlands having felled the last of its old-growth forests in 1871 but now pushing for conservation. Combining reportage, history and travelogue, she describes a messy though absorbing knot of conservation, economics and politics. Old Growth is an urgent warning and a damning indictment of Western consumerism, as well as a passionate ode to nature and eye-opening plea for its conservation.
Few people know about Europe’s old-growth forests, let alone their own implication in illegal logging
Written in an immersive, page-turning style with a colourful array of local residents and a diverse range of stances on conservation
An up-and-coming young journalist explores the forest and region’s history, as well as local customs
Rights
Martijn Prins
m.prins@singeluitgeverijen.nl
“Old Growth fizzles with interesting conversations, history lessons, philosophical interpretations and anecdotes. The book doesn’t offer us a clear conclusion about how to proceed, but it doesn’t need to. The knowledge and nuance is valuable enough. Van Duivenbode’s haunting journey is an absolute must for every nature lover.’”
