WOW! 100 million trees will be planted in Hungary in the next years!

86 communities will take part in the newly established national afforestation program of the Ministry of Agriculture.

According to MTI, in the last 10 years, the area of ​​Hungarian forests has hardly increased. Therefore, the Ministry of Agriculture announced that they would start a reforestation program with state forestry plans, and their goal is to plant more than

550 hectares of new forests 

in Hungary by using two million seedlings and nearly 100 tons of acorns.

Based on a Eurostat data for 2015, forests cover only 25.5 pc of Hungary’s territory, which is well below the 41.7 pc EU average. Frankly, because of the peace treaty of Trianon, the native forest coverage fell from 26 pc to 12 pc in 1920. Since then, it increased, but the pace of afforestation has recently slowed down.

According to CSO data, the area of ​​indigenous forests has risen only 1.4 pc since 2008. In addition, between 2017 and 2018, it even fell by 2,000 hectares. And most of our forests are made of litteracacia. So,

there is really room for improvement.

According to current ministry plans, 86 communities will participate in an afforestation pilot program. Based on what minister of agriculture István Nagy said, both private landowners and local governments can apply for reforestation subsidy. Furthermore, the amount of this subsidy has been increased by 80 to 130 pc through the change in the rural development program.

According to the ministry, forests are currently the only carbon sink sector in Hungary. Domestic forests absorb 4 to 5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, which equals 7 to 8 pc of the national emission. The energetic use of wood also produces 5 million tons of fossil carbon dioxide. It is estimated that, thanks to the program, newly planted forests will be able to absorb about 8,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year in a decade that can contribute a lot to helping to clean the air.

Previous afforestation programs produced 25,000 hectares of forests in just 3-5 years, szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu reported.

Want more? HERE you can read about the top five loveliest forest trains in Hungary. Meanwhile, HERE you can watch a breathtaking Hungarian nature film about the biggest floodplain forest in Central Europe.

Source: MTI, szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu, newsbeezer.com