This Europe: Greed puts Europe's last herd of bison at risk

"First it was just bad luck," says Mariusz, a park ranger at the Bialowieza nature reserve in eastern Poland, famous for its bison. "Then it was politics. But now it's greed. Either way, the long-term future of this community is under threat."

The Bialowieza region is a rarity in Poland's borderlands with the countries of the former Soviet Union. Not only is the area home to the last main herd of European bison – 348 animals, by far the largest surviving herd on the continent, live in the reserve – it is also relatively prosperous, thanks to the money brought in by tourists keen to catch a glimpse of Bialowieza's exotic fauna. Apart from bison, there are wolves and bears.

The reserve is on the Unesco World Heritage list for the value of its wildlife. Mariusz takes two or three groups of visitors into the 10,500-hectare reserve every day. Because most motor vehicles are banned from the reserve, he goes by pony and trap. Pausing to point out an oak tree that is 500 years old, not uncommon in this untouched primeval forest, he says: "The trees and vegetation are fascinating, but it's the bison that the tourists come for."

The problems for Bialowieza started when it was discovered that as many as a fifth of the male animals were afflicted by a disease affecting their reproductive organs. The cause was genetic: the herd had been reintroduced to Bialowieza using a handful of animals, and the gene pool was low.

To add to the problems, earlier this year the reserve was beset by a cash crisis. Infighting in the Polish government led to the freezing of a £5m environmental fund which, among other things, pays for animal feed destined for the bison. After a harsh winter, there was a lack of natural vegetation to support the herd which eats 300 tons of hay a year.

Mariusz is most of all frustrated by the prices charged by local hotel owners. The new Hotel Zubrowka next to the reserve charges £80 a room, a small fortune in a country where £400 a month is considered a good salary. His trap driver tells of another hotel where a beer costs more than twice the going rate.

"A year or two ago I was showing mainly Polish tourists around the reserve," says Mariusz. "But now they come much less often. It's the Spanish and the Italians who visit the most. The problem is that the reserve makes the same money whether it's Poles or foreigners who visit, and a few more visitors from Western countries doesn't make up for a lot fewer Poles."