Nature protection and biodiversity - National Responses (Hungary)

Land use and spatial planning

The act on the National Land Use Regulatory Plan – comprising the Ecological Network – was revised in 2006, and in line with the territories of the National Ecological Network (ECONET, as part of the Pan-European Ecological Network have also been reviewed.

The spatial components were designated by National Park Directorates The three functionally complementary components: core areas (that provide the optimum achievable quantity and quality of environmental space); corridors (to ensure appropriate interconnectivity between the core areas – both continuous corridors and stepping stones); and buffer zones (to protect the core areas and corridors from potentially damaging external influences) are incorporated as regulatory zones in the regulatory plans of the counties and of other areas of high importance.

Parallel to these steps, Natura 2000 territories have been classified into the categories of the Ecological Network. Accordingly, Hungary succeeded in combining the Natura 2000 network with ECONET, facilitating favourable conservation status of the ecosystems, habitats, species and landscapes of European importance and permitting dispersal and migration of plants and animals by the means of regulatory and regional development tools.

Detailed regulations facilitating sustainable land use appear in county level plans as well as in the Land Use Plan for the Lake Balaton Special Resort Area, the Lake Balaton Land Use Regulations (Lake Balaton Act) and in the Act on the Budapest Agglomeration. .

Forest Management

Forest management has been a regulated area in Hungary for a long time, and is carried out according to forest plans embedded in a territorial hierarchy.

Forestry and nature conservation are strongly interconnected (almost half of the protected areas in the country is made up of forest area and one-third of all forests is under protection - see http://www.aesz.hu/pdf/2008_leporello_magyar.pdf), a fact also reflected in the new forest act which came into force in 2009 and is considered to be one of the strictest acts of its kind in Europe.

(http://www.fvm.gov.hu/main.php?folderID=962&articleID=14303&ctag=articlelist&iid=1, only in Hungarian).

The Act introduced several progressive regulations, amongst others the definition of the natural state of forests, significant reduction of possibilities for clear cutting (completely forbidding it in forests having protective and social welfare functions). It is not allowed to allocate any additional economic function to forests designated to nature conservation (approximately 35 % of forests). Besides, it poses the imperative to build up a stock of native species during forest regeneration. (57 % of forest territory is covered by native species, this figure is, however, far from the upper limit of Hungarian capabilities.)

The act states that there must be a shift to continuous cover forestry - the mode should be prevalent in one-fifth of state owned forests designated to nature conservation within 10 years and the value should reach one third in 30 years.

Between 2004 and 2007, the prevalence of innovative forest management schemes multiplied 30 times.

Agricultural-environmental management

The agricultural sector can contribute significantly to the maintenance of Hungary’s natural values, if the environment-friendly production systems can appear as a real alternative to intensive factory-sized production. Concerning resources, by 2020 the natural condition of the Natura 2000 network and the continuation of specific volunteer target programmes are going to be provided.

As a result of EU subsidies, in the last few years, the territorial range of ecological production has increased (to 140 000 ha in 2009). http://portal.ksh.hu/pls/ksh/docs/eng/xstadat/xstadat_annual/i_ua001.html

A significant number of bio-products, however, is sold on foreign markets, due to higher prices and lack of organisation of the internal market.

Areas suitable for biomass production should be designated by regions, taking natural and landscape protection, ecological, agricultural site characteristics and the quality of arable soil into consideration. Negative ecological and landscape effects are caused by big territory production and intensive land use, use of invasive species, handling and production methods that are deteriorating soil quality. Building of small-community and regional power plants should be encouraged, and on good quality lands, food and forage production should be continued.

Conservation programmes of several species have been launched in the framework of EU cofinanced LIFE and LIFE+ programmes (e.g Vipera ursinii rakosiensis/Hungarian meadow viper, Aquila heliaca/Imperial Eagle, Otis tarda/Great Bustard, Falco cherrug/Saker Falcon, Falco vespertinus/Red-footed Falcon, Angelica palustris and Dianthus diutinus/Long-lasting pink). Conservation programmes of other species such as Coluber caspius/Caspian whipsnake Adonis transsylvanica, Salvia natans, Paeonia officinalis ssp. banatica, Onosma tornensis (and partly Vipera ursinii rakosiensis and Coenonympha oedippus/Danube Clouded Yellow) are being implemented based on national funds. Preservation of Otis tarda, Vipera ursinii rakosiensis and Nannospalax leucodon/mole-rat is fostered also by operating a council of experts.

The main pillar of the Convention on Biological Diversity is to preserve all life forms and genetic diversity on Earth. The EU Biodiversity Action Plan elaborated for the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy aims to identify and fill critical gaps in EU ex situ conservation programmes for wild species. In compliance with the above, the main goal of the LIFE+ project titled Establishment of the Pannon Seed Bank for the long-term ex situ conservation of Hungarian vascular wild plants is the long-term seed preservation of the wild vascular flora of the Pannonian biogeographical region in order to assist and complement in situ species conservation activities. The project aims to achieve this goal through expanding the current functions of the world’s 13th largest agricultural gene bank, the Research Centre for Agrobotany (Tápiószele) of the Central Agricultural Office, having more than fifty years of experience in the conservation of agricultural genetic resources. The establishment of a joint seed bank for the agricultural and wild flora would be a unique and demonstrative example worldwide in line with the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity, as the genetic diversity of the Pannonian biogeographical region’s entire flora, including the wild flora as well as crop and vegetable plants serving human nutrition are aimed to be conserved at one place. This valuable collection of natural assets is of great importance in terms of maintaining biodiversity at national, European and global levels and of assisting to meet the 2010 biodiversity objectives.

According to the 2008 'Unobstructed Sky' cooperation between the Ministry for Environment and Water, the Hungarian Ornithological and Natural Protection Association and Hungarian electricity providers, until 2020, bird deaths caused by free cable systems should be halted or put to a minimum. Since then, about 1000 km of cables were made bird safe in the framework of LIFE applications.

Vadonleső (WildWatcher) - a platform for public participation in the monitoring of specific species in the northern mountains of Hungary.

The WildWatcher scheme has two main objectives: on the one hand, public education and raising awareness of schoolchildren, university students, amateur naturalists, eco-tourists, senior citizens etc. by active participation in an exciting, challenging and responsible nature conservation task. On the other hand, such a comprehensive, wide-ranging, national database on the targeted fourteen endangered but widespread animal species could not be collected any other way in Hungary. The internet-based approach of the scheme makes it possible to provide information on the species concerned, raise awareness of their conservation, and record their occurrences after locating them with the help of satellite images. This complex scheme, unique in Europe, was launched in September 2009 and is maintained by the Hungarian Ministry of Environment and Water. Growing public involvement is indicated by the fact that the number of records collected in the scheme exceeded 2700 by the end of March 2010.

The Hungarian Ornithological and Natural Protection Association (http://www.mme.hu/) began the construction of a general bird-monitoring system in 1998, which uses random samples and standard counting methods, not only to monitor the most common species, but to check the natural conditions of major habitats on an annual basis. This system is the first of its kind in central and eastern Europe. The first 11 years of this work is significant, as it provides unique information about Hungary’s natural condition before the accession to the EU, and because based on its collected data, the detection of possible changes in the next few years became possible. This is especially important concerning territories of extensive size, such as agricultural habitats, where major changes are ahead in the following years.