Roztoczański

Roztocze National Park was created in 1974 in south-eastern Poland, in the Roztocze region, a belt of hills that continues into Ukraine and marks the transition between the uplands of southern Poland and the plains of the east. Its forest cover, dominated by beech and Carpathian fir mixed with pine and oak, has reached a remarkable degree of maturity and preserves stands of near-natural structure.

The river Wieprz crosses the park hemmed in between the hills, with stretches of rapids and a system of ponds associated with former fish farms that today function as wetlands of high value for waterbirds and for the beaver, which is very abundant here.

The animal most closely identified with the park is the Polish konik, a primitive horse breed of dun coat with a dorsal stripe, regarded as a close descendant of the extinct European tarpan. For decades Roztocze has kept a semi-wild herd within a forest enclosure, in a conservation breeding programme that has served as the basis for reintroductions elsewhere in Europe and in which the horses also play an ecological role by keeping the forest clearings open. In 2019 UNESCO designated the Polish-Ukrainian Roztocze Transboundary Biosphere Reserve, which combines the national park with the landscape parks of Krasnobród, Puszcza Solska and southern Roztocze, together with the protected areas on the Ukrainian side.