II Toruń Exploration Forum

The Second Exploration Forum in Toruń – a meeting of representatives of several leading Polish associations, foundations and exploration teams – was held on 22 November this year. Also invited were some of the most important explorers in the environment. The organizers of the Forum were: Włodzimierz Antkowiak (International Exploration Agency, Toruń), Arkadiusz Pawełek (Wrocław, non-associated) and Paweł Skoworotko (Warsaw, non-associated).

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The following teams were represented at the meeting: “Latebra” Foundation (Krzysztof Bartnik), Aviation Warsaw (Adam Kostyra), Treasure Hunters (Mirosław Staroń, Robert Liszka), Museum of Military Technology and Vehicles (Jacek Kopczyński, Janusz Zgit), International Exploration Agency (Włodzimierz Antkowiak, Piotr Lamparski).

The meeting was also attended by Joanna Pawełczyk and Marcin Pawełczyk from the largest Polish portal dedicated to diving – Divers24.pl, and non-associated explorers: Arkadiusz Pawełek, Paweł Skoworotko, and Zbigniew Karpiński. The venue of the meeting, just like last year, was Fort IV “Yorck/Żółkiewski” in Toruń, known to many explorers from previous meetings of explorers, fortification enthusiasts, trekkers, etc.

The Forum took the following decisions:

1. In view of the failure of the mission of the Forum delegation selected during last year’s meeting (the Chairwoman of the Parliamentary Culture Committee, Iwona Śledzińska-Katarasińska, PO, despite the obvious need to make serious changes to the Act on the Protection of Historical Monuments in force since 2003, refused to address the issues of prospectors and prospecting in Poland at all, refused to address the issues of prospectors and prospecting in Poland, and the Deputy Minister of Culture, acting as the General Conservator of Antiquities, Piotr Żuchowski, PSL, did not respond to our letters at all) it was decided to abandon this form of reaching out to officials and politicians as completely ineffective.

2. it was decided that in March 2015 an open All-Polish Meeting of Exploration Communities will be held in Fort IV in Toruń, whose participants together, in a much wider group, will make decisions on further directions and forms of action in matters concerning the legal situation of explorers.

It seems that next year’s parliamentary elections create some opportunities to put pressure on those in power and force them to introduce rational legal solutions concerning prospecting in Poland, successfully tested in other countries. Responsibility for the preparation of the March meeting was entrusted to Mirosław Staroń of the Treasure Hunters group, with the support of organisations participating in the Forum. A communiqué concerning the details of the Polish National Meeting of Exploration Communities will be prepared and made public by mid-December.

As the initiator of this year’s meeting, I would like to thank the co-organisers of the Forum, its participants, as well as those who, for various reasons, could not attend.

Separate thanks are due to the owner of Fort IV, Jerzy Okoński, whose kindness we have met with for years at every Toruń meeting.

Włodzimierz Antkowiak
International Exploration Agency (MAP)