Białowieża Forest

Peter Teunissen, August 2024

In August 2024, one of our researchers traveled to the Białowieża Forest to explore the landscape and how it intersects with mobility regimes. Located along the Belarus-Poland border, the Białowieża Forest is a space where nature, borders, and displacement intersect. During our visit, we talked with activists, legal practitioners, and local inhabitants, gaining valuable insights into the complexities of the region. 

Falling tree in front of the National Park in Bialowieza

As one of Europe’s last primeval woodlands, it has become a critical site for understanding how landscapes are both a tool of border governance, but also as a site of escape, safety, and solidarity. The dense forest terrain, combined with extreme weather conditions, presents significant physical barriers for those attempting to cross into the European Union, while the density of the forest covers places to hide.

Tire tracks in the forest

Amidst the natural beauty, the sounds of heavy trucks rumbling through the forest disrupt the silence, their engines echoing through the forest and deep tire marks left behind in the soil, are a stark reminders of the situation unfolding at the border.

Border Infrastructures in front of a tourist observation point at the Polish-Belarussian Border

Concrete polls lying waiting to be installed