A fungus with a protection zone around its site

Species protection usually forbids acts: picking, destroying, trading. Applied to a fungus such a ban has limited reach, because it protects the fruiting body — a reproductive organ visible for a couple of weeks — and not the mycelium, which lives in the substrate for years and on which the site depends.

Polish law provides a stronger instrument here. The regulation of the Minister of the Environment of 9 October 2014 on the species protection of fungi, published in the Journal of Laws for 2014 under item 1408 and in force since 17 October 2014, carries four annexes. The first lists species under strict protection, the second those under partial protection, the third partially protected species that may be harvested together with the permitted methods, and the fourth is titled "Species of fungi requiring the establishment of protection zones for their refuges and sites, and the size of those zones".

A protection zone is an area around a site in which activities capable of destroying it are restricted. In Poland the instrument is best known from the protection of birds of prey, where what is protected is not the individual but the nesting place. Applying the same logic to fungi is an admission that the object of protection is the habitat and the mycelium, not the specimen.

We do not give the number of species in each annex here. The tables sit in attachments in a format we could not read in a way that would let us vouch for the result, and a figure copied from second hand would not meet this site's standard. The act itself is publicly available and still in force, which we checked in the Sejm ELI register on 15 August 2026.

The practical conclusion for anyone picking: some Polish fungi are protected, and for a few the surroundings of the site are protected as well. Not knowing the species does not remove the obligation.

Eleven lichens and an administrative decision

Annex 4 of Poland's 2014 regulation lists exactly 11 species—all lichenised fungi: three Lobaria, four Parmotrema, plus Evernia divaricata, Ramalina thrausta, Nephroma parile and Thelotrema lepadinum. For each, the prescribed maximum is the site and refuge within a radius of up to 50 m. This does not create an automatic circle around every report. Under Article 60(3) of the Nature Conservation Act, the regional environmental protection director may establish or remove a zone by administrative decision. Once established, entry, tree or shrub cutting, alteration of water conditions and construction are prohibited without permission. Sensitive site coordinates should not be republished as a visitor map.