Carpathian Convention – 3-year Hungarian presidency begins

Hungary has assumed the three-year presidency of the Framework Convention on the Protection and Sustainable Development of the Carpathians (Carpathian Convention), which is operated by seven countries under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The presidency was officially transferred within the framework of a three-day, high-level conference in Lillafüred, near Miskolc, with the participation of the parties to the Convention, at which Minister of Agriculture Sándor Fazekas received the baton representing the performance of presidential duties from the representative of the Czech Republic.

“Two thirds of Hungary’s territory is being used for some kind of agricultural farming, and accordingly it is symbolic that the declaration of our cooperation aimed at the sustainable development of agriculture and rural areas should occur during this event to launch the Hungarian presidency”, the Minister declared before the conference’s participants. “In supplementation of the Conventions many, previously adopted protocols, the document on sustainable agriculture and rural development was also adopted during the current conference”, Mr. Fazekas highlighted.

The Minister declared that in addition,

the Hungarian presidency also wishes to place greater attention on cooperation within the fields of education relating to sustainable development, environmental safety, cultural heritage and traditional knowledge, and climate protection.

“Climate change also represents one of the greatest challenges of our age within the Carpathian basin, and accordingly it is important that the conference has also adopted the amendment of the Convention with a new Article on climate”, the Minister told the press.

Mr. Fazekas stressed that in addition to the Carpathian Convention, Hungary is also an active participant of cooperation within the Visegrád Group and the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, and the current period is a huge opportunity and challenge in view of the fact that Hungary currently holds the presidency of all three organisations.

During its presidency, Hungary has undertaken, amongst others, to organise a regional conference on its experiences relating to education and increasing public awareness with relation to the environment and sustainability, and on opportunities for cooperation in the region within this filed, with particular focus on presenting Hungary’s green nursery school and eco-school programmes.

We will also be organising a conference on cultural heritage and traditional knowledge.

Hungary is continuing to undertake the coordination of the climate adaptation field and are doing everything possible in the interests of facilitating the implementation of the protocol on sustainable agriculture and rural development.

The Framework Convention on the Protection and Sustainable Development of the Carpathians was signed in Kiev in 2003 by the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine.

The goal of the Convention is for the countries involved to cooperate and contribute to the protection and sustainable development of the Carpathians:

to preserve the region’s natural and cultural treasures, improve the quality of life of the people living there, and to reinforce the local economy and local communities.

In the interests of achieving these goals, the countries of the Convention and a host of partner are working together in working groups and other forms of cooperation within the fields of sustainable tourism, sustainable forest management, sustainable agriculture and rural development, preserving biodiversity and landscape diversity, climate adaptation, cultural heritage and traditional knowledge, sustainable industry, energy, transport and infrastructure, and environmental safety.

The next Convention conference will be held in Poland in 2020.

Source: Ministry of Agriculture