The Author discusses the present state of Polish geography against the background of the traditional position, and the rapid development taking place after the Second World War. The introduction of new methods and new directions, as well as new organization are considered to have been reflected in the rising international position of Polish geography. Further topics here include the relationship between physical and human geography, the growing de facto separation of these two branches, and the development of several independent sciences rooted in geography but now existing apart from it (like geomorphology, climatology, hydrology, etc. on the physical geography side, with the element of the environment as a subject of study). On the other hand, social economic geography examines the effects of human activity in the environment, thereby synthesizing spatial management and bridging the gap between the earth sciences, the economy and the social sciences. The degradation of environmental resources, explosion of the human population and climate change have all forced geography (and other sciences) to head in the global direction, as well as towards interdisciplinary cooperation, likewise on the level of the world as a whole. If we are to meet the challenges this all entails, we will need to think about creating interdisciplinary problem teams, as well as activating existing organisational structures in science (notably the geographical sciences), with full benefit taken from research centres that run studies on differing spatial scales, in conjunction with international global programmes like the Future Earth. The geography of the future should not be a closed science, but should draw on the knowledge of scholars of various specialisations, seeking environmental solutions that require intervention on both the global and regional scales. Polish geography should participate in this activity, inter alia as part of Future Earth, as a new venture. It can also be regarded as our task to ensure that society is aware of all the above issues.

Biodiversity conservation cannot operate in Central Eastern European countries without a well-established monitoring system, that is dependent on the citizen scientists input. Here we analyse, based on a Polish case: (1) The contribution of NGOs to the national nature monitoring scheme and their collaboration with governmental and scientific institutions and (2) the motivation of citizen scientists to volunteer for NGOs’ monitoring activities. The study comprises a focus group interview, 30 in-depth interviews with coordinators, citizen scientists, experts and a 23 days long participant observation of a model NGO. We have assessed the monitoring input of NGOs as being a contributory factor influencing the biodiversity conservation effectiveness. The cooperation between governmental, scientific institutions and NGOs exists, but is dependent on national funding. Although NGOs highlight the lack of coherence in monitoring methodology, they are willing to join the biodiversity monitoring, especially at the European Ecological Network – Natura 2000 sites. On the other hand the trust concerning cooperation with citizen scientists is limited. However, despite this, they still turned out to be trustworthy partners. The most effective way to maintain cooperation with citizen scientists is to create a bond in a group and to provide them with the opportunity to develop their passion for nature. Our findings have shed light on the growing importance of citizen scientists in biodiversity governance, providing recommendations for development of the effective monitoring schemes based on the volunteer work of citizen scientists.

In 1981, Polish canoeists (members of the Bystrze Academic Travel Club) made the first journey along the waters of the River Colca in the section located in Arequipa Province (Peru), along which the waters flow in a deep canyon. Information on this sporting achievement – and a description of the Canyon and its surrounding area filled the Peruvian press and tourist publications around the world, ensuring that the Colca Canyon became one of the most important goals for tourists anywhere in Peru from that time on. However, mass infl uxes of tourists, noisy trips, the development of hotel infrastructure and other items required in tourism have generated permanent change in the character of the Colca Valley, and done much to influence the lives of its inhabitants.

The purpose of this article is to identify and assess environmental risks that may have the greatest impact on the future of humanity. They were divided into two basic groups, i.e. for natural processes and resources. In addition, climate change is described as different group. The authors decided, that a holistic approach to this issue is more desirable than dividing it into two above-mentioned groups. The comparison of various threats was possible due to the application of identical assessment criteria, such as: the harmfulness, rate of spread, scope and moment of occurrence of a given group of threats. Each of the listed criteria has been evaluated on a five-point scale, where 1 has the smallest and 5 the largest impact force. The obtained results show the leading importance of natural processes in maintaining the existing Earth system. In addition, the authors point to a greater risk of problems related to renewable resources than non-renewable one. As a result, it can be assumed that the current degradation of natural processes and excessive use of resources is likely to lead to the risk of global disasters.

Industry 4.0 and the associated idea of society 4.0 pose specific challenges for the concept of sustainable development. These challenges relate, inter alia, to responsibility, in which the changes to date have overall entailed:

• a transition from ex post responsibility to ex ante responsibility (H. Jonas);

• a transition from individual responsibility to corporate social responsibility.

In the context of society 4.0 there is a need for shared responsibility. The problem of justice and therefore the implementation of sustainable development not only becomes an open problem, but also requires constant updating and specifi c optimisation.

This article takes up the matter of contemporary threats to cities and urbanity, setting the problems cities face today against the background of the two categories of the resilient city and the city developing sustainably. The author describes and presents the evolution of the sustainable development concept as such, as well as the generational change in priorities that has taken place where the development of urbanised areas is concerned, given the way the concept has undergone a certain devaluation, in the light of its failure to achieve fulfi lment. The challenges cities face today require multi-faceted activity, in respect of increased inclusivity, robustness and resilience, and flexibility. This leaves today’s idea of the resilient city embracing old elements of the sustainable city, but also augmenting them in various ways.

Though current conservation policy in Poland refl ects world trends and approaches to action, compliance with all of its assumptions would entail the Polish authorities remodelling both the system and the methods by which natural resources are managed. On the one hand this requires a change of approach to the management of natural resources from the traditional, purely nature-related one, to a more modern inter-disciplinary one that takes in social and economic conditioning. On the other hand, a system need to be put in place to allow these ideas to be introduced in practice. The work described here deals with the participation of different stakeholder groups in nature management, with this regarded as a method of increasing the latter’s effi ciency. The many examples (of good practice) presented by the author well illustrate the wisdom of the approach, which often seems to achieve success where it is attempted.

It is contended that, in essence, climate policy is sustainable development policy, given that it postulates the use of renewable resources, and an increase in the effectiveness of use of non-renewable ones. Furthermore, it serves the security of future generations more than present ones; for while unfavourable impacts of climate change are already making their presence felt, truly negative consequences of considerable signifi cance are likely to be more of a matter for the second half of the present century. This is why, in analysing the evolution of the approach to climate policy through the late 20th century and into the 21st, it is also possible to appraise changes in the approach to the sustainable-development concept. This article has therefore sought to offer the author’s analysis of how the approach to sustainable development has evolved, by reference to Poland’s climate policy from 1988 through to 2016. As this is done, an attempt is also made to identify the conditioning that has decided upon and will go on determining the shape of national policy in this domain. Climate policy in Poland has been developing since the early 1990s. At the outset, it was not a source of controversy, with the consequence that the country rather rapidly signed up to and then ratifi ed the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. However, as early as in the late 1990s, reservations began to be expressed, to the effect that actions to protect the climate might pose a threat to Poland’s economy. A key turning point as regards the approach came with the growing dispute over the EU 2020 Climate and Energy Package. It was also at this time that a thesis began to take shape, holding that the goals of climate policy where at best unfavourable and at worst dangerous for Poland. This approach in fact held sway in successive years, leaving this country’s cooperation with the EU over this matter severely hindered. The main reason for this change of approach to climate policy can be considered to lie in the politicisation thereof, and hence the increasing dominance of the short-term interests of the Polish political elite over either the public interest or the security of future generations.

The aim of this paper is to analyse whether the medical rehabilitation segment is an important part of the entire Polish healthcare system, and if the medical rehabilitation services are provided with adequate levels of financing and management. The study reviews published literature and legal acts, and undertakes an analysis of data acquired from international and national health data repositories. In Poland there exists no coordination between medical, vocational and social rehabilitation or between the rehabilitation delivered by the health resort facilities. There is an observed lack of coordination among public fund payers. The described lack of coordination influences not only patient treatments (it is difficult to measure outputs and outcomes), but also makes summarizing the total expenditures on curative rehabilitation more difficult. Even though numerous countries spend a smaller or comparable amount of money on rehabilitation (per patient), funds allocated to rehabilitation in Poland (expressed in PPS) are over seven times lower than in France, about five times lower than in Austria and Belgium, and three times lower than in the Netherlands.

All local government units in Poland have been analysed regarding their consolidated debt. The consolidated debt was compared with the budget debt which is subject to monitoring and statutory restrictions. The scale of extra-budgetary debt has been revealed as recorded in the balance sheet of a local government unit, a parent entity. In practice, the consolidated balance sheet and debt presented in it are not subject to debates and analyses. Local governments refrain from auditing and publicising of the consolidated balance sheet. The article describes the risks related to unlimited local government debt.

The aim of the paper is to point out that the Monte Carlo simulation is an easy and flexible approach when it comes to forecasting risk of an asset portfolio. The case study presented in the paper illustrates the problem of forecasting risk arising from a portfolio of receivables denominated in different foreign currencies. Such a problem seems to be close to the real issue for enterprises offering products or services on several foreign markets. The changes in exchange rates are usually not normally distributed and, moreover, they are always interdependent. As shown in the paper, the Monte Carlo simulation allows for forecasting market risk under such circumstances.

This paper presents the innovative activity of enterprises as a process that is risky but necessary for the survival of a company in a competitive market, and as a way to maximize the long-term value for the owners. Risks and benefits were analysed, and the possible sources of added value in innovative projects were identified in the context of the capital market equilibrium and the budgeting of investments. Innovative projects become a source of added value for investors if the financial effects such as changes in the residual cash flow and higher growth rate outweigh the combined impact on the risk generated by two factors: increase of systematic risk and emerging specific risks.

The paper aims at the empirical evaluation of the impact of bank size (as measured by median total assets) on the value relevance of two key accounting variables, i.e. book values of equity and net earnings, in terms of their joint explanatory power in the regression model and the relative responsiveness of bank market values to the changes in those variables. The research is based on the multiple linear regression analysis after controlling for the presence of fixed and random effects. The examined sample covers all domestically-based commercial banks listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange over the period 1998–2017. The final pooled sample comprises 18 banks and 271 bank-year observations. The findings of the study suggest that the equity investors perceive the joint informational content of book values and earnings of larger banks as more value relevant in comparison to the accounting numbers reported by their smaller peers. The responsiveness of banks’ market values to the changes in each of the explanatory variables seems, however, to be affected by their size in a different way. As expected, book values of equity have turned out to be significantly more informative for smaller banks, whereas the evidence regarding the impact of size on the responsiveness of bank market values to the changes in net earnings is ambiguous. Although larger banks appear to exhibit a higher sensitivity of stock prices to variations in net earnings per share than their smaller peers, the difference between the examined subsamples is not statistically significant.

The correlations and the influence of the monetary policy pursued by the central banks of developed countries, primarily by the Federal Reserve System (the central bank of the United States), on the economies of developing countries is a subject of research, especially since the outbreak of the last financial crisis. Decisions concerning shifts in attitudes in the monetary policy taken by the monetary authorities of the largest economies, influence investors’ behaviour. Due to globalization and financialization, short-term capital flows occur very quickly and on a significant scale. Argentina is an illustration of the consequences of monetary policy tapering by the FRS for the economy of a developing country. Argentina was supported during the period of disturbances by the International Monetary Fund. Nevertheless, it seems that this solution is insufficient in view of the globalization of the effects of the monetary policy pursued by the economically strongest countries.

After the banking crisis, the European Union (EU) introduced a framework for the restructuring and orderly liquidation of credit institutions. The overarching goal of the new rules is to manage severe banking crisis more efficiently. One of the main pillars of the European bank resolution regime are the powers of the resolution authorities to use resolution tools (sale of business, bridge bank, bad bank and bail-in). However, the question arises whether the implemented toolkit will be sufficient to effectively contain systemic banking crisis. The literature regarding empirical research on the effectiveness of the BRRD tools provides ambiguous conclusions. Therefore, the newly established resolution authorities in the EU were asked to express their opinion about their readiness to combat systemic crisis and the usefulness of the accessible toolkit. The evaluation of the effectiveness of the resolution tools in a systemic crises by the resolution authorities showed that the most effective resolution tool seems to be the bad bank, while bank liquidation was rated as the least appropriate. Nevertheless, the resolution authorities also identified many barriers for all resolution tools that may limit the ability of their implementation and possibly translate into the lower effectiveness of the resolution framework.