Abstract
At the beginning of our study, i.e.. before opening the Bełchatów brown coal mine and the power station 155 species of lichens were registered in the period 1970-1985. A preliminary estimation of the influence of the Bełchatów Industrial Region (BIR) on the lichen flora has been performed. More than 1% of the lichen flora has entirely disappcared, about 43% of the species have shown partial devastation of their localities and numerous localities of more than 35% of taxa have been threatened.