In 1992 in its second expedition, the Artists for Nature Foundation (ANF) working with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) sent 32 international artists, including John Busby, to the Biebrza Marshes in Poland. Only three years earlier the area had been designated a Landscape Park and the Biebrza Society were working hard to transform the status of the area into a National Park.
Acting as a catalyst for nature conservation the ANF’s aim was to draw the attention of policy makers to the ecological richness of the area, and the group of artists conveyed ‘the feeling and atmosphere of a scene in a way that is quite unique’ as the late HRH Prince Philip put it in the introduction to the subsequent book of the project.
Happily the Biebrza National Park was created on September 9th 1993 and currently covers 590 km2 (230 sq miles) of which just under half are the marsh lands around the Biebrza and Narew rivers.
With plans for a year of celebrations the Biebrzański Park Narodowy has unveiled its jubilee logo featuring a Ruff.
Eco-tourism plays a big part in sustaining the Park, so if ever there was a good time to follow in the footsteps of those ANF artists and see the variety of wildlife and habitats within the park it is this year!
A number of John’s pictures relating to the ANF expedition can be seen in this gallery. Click on a picture for details.
