Hungary’s oldest forest is chopped down

One of the oldest forests in Hungary was chopped down by Egererdő Ltd, a governmental forestry holding. The forest was 180 years old and located in a nature reserve. How could this happen? The forestry claims they had good reasons for it.

One of Hungary’s oldest forests was chopped down as reported by WWF Hungary and Index.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is an international non-governmental organisation founded in 1961, working in the field of wilderness preservation and reducing human impact on the environment. WWF is the world’s largest conservation organisation with over five million supporters worldwide, working in more than 100 countries, supporting around 1,300 conservation and environmental projects.

The 180-year-old-forest was located near Tar-kő in Bükki Nemzeti Park [Bükk National Park] which is an official national reserve. According to WWF Hungary, the logging was done by Egererdő Ltd. which is a governmental forestry holding.

WWF Hungary writes that the forest provided the natural habitat for rare bird species including the white-backed woodpecker and the stock dove, among 13 other protected and specially protected plant species. The forest was also one of the oldest forests in the country. The 6,000 m3 wood that was chopped down is worth very little money due to its old age.

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Forests that are older than 180 years are less than 1,000 hectares which are only half per mille of the national forest range.

Egererdő Ltd. issued a statement on their website claiming that the mentioned area was chopped down in the name of regeneration, a process that has been going on for decades.

Forest regeneration is the process by which a stand is established or renewed. The main objective of regeneration is to free up or create growing space (either partially or totally) for new (younger) trees which, unfortunately, occasionally means that mature trees have to be chopped down.

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Thus, the company claims that their intentions were not at all economic, and they previously agreed with the Board of the Bükk National Park on the logging process. They also had a permit from the nature conservation authority.

In the end, all was done in order to rejuvenate the forest.

Featured image: Illustration/Pixabay

Source: www.wwf.hu; www.index.hu; www.egererdo.hu; Wikipedia