POSTOLOWO, Poland — In June, some 30 protesters assembled at dawn in Postolowo, a tiny village in northeast Poland. At the edge of a woodland, they chained themselves to a red forest harvester that can cut up to 200 trees a day, making a statement against large-scale logging in the last primeval forest in Europe.

“This is a sacred ground, and we need to protect it,” said Klaudia Wojciechowicz, a 41-year-old artist who had driven half the night to get to Postolowo.

The Bialowieza Forest, a United Nations World Heritage site, has been a battleground for more than a year between Poland’s conservative government and dozens of scientists and environmental advocates. Polish officials argue that logging protects the forest from a violent infestation of bark beetles. Logging is also an important source of jobs for local residents.

“They want to destroy the forest,” said Mariusz Agiejczyk, a deputy forest district manager here, watching the protesters from afar in the early morning mist. He said the infestation had killed 10,000 acres of forest. “If it weren’t for those so-called ecologists, we could have saved it.”