Hungary wants to preserve biodiversity
Hungary’s agriculture ministry and the MBH Bank have launched a project focusing on the protection of species, forests and water with an aim of preserving biodiversity, the agriculture minister said in a keynote speech at the Budapest Climate Summit on Monday.
The programmes will be implemented in national parks, “showing that political and economic players are both committed to nature and environmental protection,” his ministry quoted István Nagy as saying.
Preservation works have restored the natural environment to the original state on 300,000 hectares, Nagy said. The total of environmental investments came to some 90 billion forints (EUR 238m) since 2012, he said. The government sees the protection of “natural capital” and the resources of biodiversity, farmland, climate regulation, pure water and air as a strategic issues, he said.
Government considers ethnic Hungarian farmers strategic allies
The government considers ethnic Hungarian farmers in other countries strategic partners, a ministry of agriculture official told the 12th Cooperation Forum of the Carpathian Basin on Monday.
State secretary Sándor Farkas said that beyond being an annual professional forum, the event was also a “celebration” demonstrating the power of regional cooperation. “We share what we have in order to have more,” he added.
Barna Pál Zsigmond, the state secretary at the ministry of European Union affairs, said cooperation between Hungarians and ethnic Hungarians abroad was also working effectively also in the agricultural sector.
Arpad János Potápi, the state secretary in charge of policies for Hungarian communities, said networks played an important role also in the case of ethnic Hungarian farmers abroad who represent the largest network of the Carpathian Basin. “All efforts must be made to keep Hungarian land in Hungarian ownership and help Hungarian farmers to as much land as possible,” he added.
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