European Wilderness Society

Linking ecological research and practical conservation

The new ecological research institute called Hermann Ottó Institute had its inauguration workshop in Budapest yesterday. There were 12 presentations about the history and the current state of ecological researches in Hungary with special focus on the EU Pannonian biogeographical region, which is largely located in Hungary. Here comes a few photographs and interesting quotes from the most interesting presentations.

According to György Csóka from the Forestry Research Institute three factors are threatening forests in Hungary (and beyond):

  • unfavorable environmental conditions
  • invasive species, and
  • bad forestry practice

With reference to a recent article in National Geographic (we will soon speak to dolphins), he added that while running a conversation with dolphins is nice, but we should first solve the communication challenges between foresters and nature conservationists.

Ms Katalin Török from the Ecological Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences said that one could learn more from failures of ecological restoration than successes. She presented various examples of restoration projects focused on the Great Plain in Hungary. She called decision makers to develop the Hungarian national strategy for restoration as part of the implementation of the EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy-

Prof Dénes Bartha from the Western Pannonian University of Sopron introduced the various forest management techniques which can guarantee continuous forest cover. He said that forest clear cut is one of the gallopers of apocalypse. He added that actually 72 353 hectares of forest was managed according to nonintervention principles in 2014. This is due to economic reasons.

 

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