By Steve Owad

Jacek Bozek, 42, has never been one to follow the pack. After getting "kicked out of every school I ever attended," the fast-talking free spirit trekked through the Himalayas and studied Hatha Yoga before returning to Bielsko-Biala, his hometown of 180,000 in southern Poland. His goal back then was simple but impractical: "I wanted to do everything for everybody."

In 1988 that included launching a Free Tibet newsletter and perching himself atop a tree in the city center to protest the city's plan to clear the area. Such moves earned Bozek the attention of the Communist secret police, but more important, when Poles embraced democracy a year later, it showed him the importance of having a clear focus.

"I had no knowledge of how to run an efficient environmental organization," he said. "I had no experience, and neither did anyone else in the country."

So he narrowed his focus. In 1989 Bozek and four former Hatha Yoga students formed the Gaja Club ("GA-ya," for the ancient Greek "Mother Earth"), an informal group that promoted forest protection and animal rights. In 1994 the club added to its to-do list the promotion of eco-friendly development of the Vistula River.

Europe's 'Last Natural River'

The 1,100-kilometer Vistula, which Bozek calls Europe's "last preserved natural river" because its course has not yet been altered artificially, flows from the Beskidy Mountains south of Bielsko-Biala to the Baltic. Its 200,000-square-kilometer basin covers more than half of Poland and is home to 220 bird species, including 60 percent of Europe's white storks.

But pollution has poisoned much of the river. Warsaw is one of only two European capitals to dump untreated waste into its river (Tirana, Albania, is the other), and industrial dumping has put half the native wildlife on the endangered species list.

Bozek points to a planned dam in Ciechocinek (yellow strips on the map indicate other planned dams; the black strip is the existing dam on Wloclawek)

Environmentalists argue that a government plan to build eight dams (the first one went up in 1975 in Wloclawek) and dig a 300-kilometer canal to factories in the south would kill several species and raise the water table, making vast tracts of land unfarmable. Bozek points to the Wloclawek dam as a warning sign. The catchment has gathered a sewage-laden sediment that has destroyed more than half of the riverside land and killed marketable fish like sturgeon and salmon.

A Small Voice Makes Itself Heard

In a country were the state makes water-management decisions and small communities have scant awareness of how the issue affects them, Bozek's main success has been to move the debate on dams to the local level. Gaja's networking with other NGOs, scientists, youths and local governments has helped 20 communities challenge lobbyists for dam construction and start environmentally friendly developments involving nature reserves, eco-tourism and alternative energy sources like wind power and composting.

In early January, a parliamentary committee approved construction of a $460 million dam in Ciechocinek. Bozek argues that the project will compound the damage caused by the dam in Wloclawek, 40 kilometers upstream.

"The hydro-lobby tells everyone the new dam will cure the sediment problem" by moving water more quickly through the catchment, Bozek said, "but it will only take on some of the old sediment, while creating more of its own."

Radoslaw Gawlik, Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection, agrees. "If the sediment rushes down the river," he said, "it could destroy all biological life along the way."

The Argument for Dams

The dams' supporters argue that the eight-dam cascade would lessen Poland's dependence on coal-based power plants, which are heavy polluters. They also contend that new reservoirs would promote water-based tourism, improve water supplies to some areas, even serve as much-needed bridges over the Vistula.

Though there has been no comparative analysis of the costs of dam-building versus more ecological alternatives, Bozek argues that wind power, composting and eco-tourism can also bring substantial benefits. The government is obliged by law to study the environmental impact before building a dam. Local communities, however, have no legal instruments with which to block a project.

A sand digger takes a break on the banks of the Vistula River outside Warsaw

The Vistula's sewage problem can only be solved by building treatment plants. "Plants are an expensive proposition," Bozek said, "but so are dams." An agreement with the European Union obliges Poland to improve sewage treatment, but Bozek said politicians will not pursue such projects without pressure from the public.

Addressing the Problem of Money

Popularizing the dam-and-sewage debate has taken time and energy. To find funding in Gaja's early days, Bozek applied to organizations like the World Wildlife Fund, Ashoka, the Regional Environmental Center in Budapest and the Marshall Foundation. The foundations provided not only money, but also training in NGO strategy.

"The Marshall Fund's workshops for NGO leaders showed me how to seek financing, deal with the media and see that water-management alternatives exist elsewhere," Bozek said. "Ashoka put me in contact with people who work with water issues. It was essential to learn about good examples, like composting and wind power, rather than just negative arguments." It was also important to have good contacts with the town council, which added some start-up funds and provided the club with a dilapidated but spacious mansion on the outskirts at an affordable price.

With funding and know-how in hand (at least temporarily), Bozek moved toward selling nature reserves and eco-tourism in his home province, inviting politicians, scientists and leaders of other local NGOs to roundtables. "The goal was, and still is, to talk to as many people as possible," he said. "The first step was to find agreement on ideas that don't pollute."

One result is that local governments in Bielsko-Biala province are drawing up biological surveys and lobbying the state for the right to establish their own nature reserves along the Vistula and other rivers. In 1997, three communes close to Bielsko-Biala commissioned Gaja to prepare a bio-survey of the area around the Zylica River.

Vistula River levy in the City of Torun

"Hikers need something to eat and somewhere to stay," Bozek said. "This isn't only about saving birds; it's about creating an environmentally friendly service infrastructure of restaurants and hotels."

Taking His Eco-Show on the Road

Selling such ideas to a town takes more than a sound argument. Bozek woos support outside Bielsko-Biala the same way he did in the early days at home: through heavy networking and plenty of roundtables with the governments, scientists and residents. "We go on 'roadshows' to towns where we've already established links with local NGO's," Bozek said. "The reason for not going in cold is that those organizations already know the local communities. They can invite the politicians to a meeting and tell their contacts in the media that we're coming."

A typical roadshow involves three elements: a roundtable with local authorities and/or scientists (and whenever possible, opposition lobbyists), a news conference and "strong street action." "You can invite a scientist to a conference but young people are more interested in doing something active," he said. "You can easily find 20 local youngsters to take part in a street theater production."

The street events are important for another reason. Bozek stresses that when the goal is to get your message out, you need media interest: "Nobody wants to listen to talking heads. You need action. When we go to Warsaw, we're covered by every branch of media in town, because the media knows there will be good opportunities for photos and soundbites. I might get only 30 seconds on TV, but it's an opportunity to explain to 10 million people what we're trying to do."

That flair for public relations has made Gaja well known nationwide, which in turn helps to keep the network of NGOs and volunteers growing without a large staff. The roundtables and roadshows have earned Gaja the collaboration of scientists, politicians and NGO leaders in 20 communities along the Vistula and other rivers.

After 12 years of forging contacts, Gaja itself still only has seven "members," six of whom have found their own funding to work on non-river-related activities. The network outside Bielsko-Biala is in constant flux, depending on which NGOs or eco-groups are operating and interested.

To help maintain that interest, Bozek organized a Vistula Day street festival in Bielsko-Biala in 1994. The idea for an annual event caught on, and more than 50 Polish cities and towns now hold their own Vistula Days in June, promoting everything from nature reserves to composting to well construction.

Tapping the Enthusiasm of Youth

Young volunteers are central to the formula, spreading the sustainable development mantra in schools and at street festivals. "You don't have to be a specialist to promote these issues," Bozek said. "What you need is energy and commitment."

In Bielsko-Biala, he brought youths aboard by visiting schools and running informal theater workshops. In other towns, the street events and the links with local NGOs attract youths. Training involves more awareness-building than mentoring, and sometimes extends even to Hatha Yoga exercises.

In planning meetings outside Bielsko-Biala, money is the biggest concern. Funding for Gaja's Vistula campaign now comes from the Bielsko-Biala Provincial Environmental Protection Fund, the World Wildlife Fund and the Dutch foundation DOEN. But funding agreements typically last only a few years, so Bozek is constantly applying to other foundations to keep the work afloat.

Bozek's Ashoka grant helps, but to generate some income on his own, he makes the most of Gaja's 900-square-meter mansion in the woods, with nature walks and theater workshops and rentals for environment-related functions.

Despite such support, Bozek worries that promoting sustainable river development will become harder. "NGOs in Poland will start to resemble the scene in the West, with a few large organizations and many very small organizations that work only on specific local issues," he worries.

The Problems of 'Scaling Up' to Larger Organizations

Large NGOs have the contacts and lobbying leverage that can help some smaller groups, but some, Bozek believes, could be left behind. "Some environmental groups are starting to look like green ghettos," he said.

"You have to be open to links with cultural and social groups, not only ecological groups. You have to look to other countries for examples of how to evolve and operate."

An inability to do so, he added, has killed some groups that cooperated with Gaja in the past. He believes that to survive as an NGO, you should measure your size in terms of influence. Gaja, he said, can be a large organization with only a handful of members.

He also fears that the spirit of activism, so strong when democracy came, is losing steam. "Ten years ago, Poles would protest expressway construction through a valuable forest," he said. "Now a lot of people will only protest if the road is planned to go through their own neighborhood."

The answer to the growing indifference: more networking with outside groups and more media exposure.

Three Clues to Success

Bozek says three elements are essential to starting a Gaja-style organization and keeping it running:

• "First you need a few energetic people to work with you in making initial contacts.

• "Then you need to find people with knowledge and contacts to other organizations, like scientists, local governments and the media).

• "Then you need the concrete elements, like strategy, money and examples of success that can fit your argument."

With River Network's cooperation (and when money is available), Bozek also publishes the Vistula Fax, an English-language newsletter written by volunteer specialists and mailed to NGOs and other interested groups. In tandem with World Wildlife Fund representatives, Bozek plans to go on his first international roadshow this year. He does not expect every stop along the way to bring success, but the routine is far more productive than trying to "do everything for everybody."

Bozek would like to hear from ecological and social organizations that have innovative examples of sustainable development to share.