If a tree has a circumference of more than 230 centimetres, it is an old-growth tree.
The latest statistics of WWF Hungary (click here) show alarming data on the state of Hungarian old-growth forests and their conservation status. Forests older than 120 years, which are crucial to nature conservation, constitute barely two percent of the country’s forest area, or 37,000 hectares, according to the Hungarian National Forest Stand Database. One-third of these forests is not protected, and more than half of the old-growth forests located on protected and specially protected public lands are being exploited.
Currently, 95% of the country’s forest area is being used for wood production. This rate reaches 98% in the Nyírség region in Eastern Hungary. Some 90% of the forests that are older than 120 years are being exploited by logging, mainly clear-cutting.
For example, the size of old pedunculate oak forests that once enriched Alföld, the Great Hungarian Plain occupying the southern and eastern part of Hungary, has decreased critically due to timber harvesting. The same is true for old-growth mountain beech forests. This not only endangers biodiversity, but threatens to destroy essential public amenity values. Some forests must be kept for the purpose of maintaining nature conservation, the opportunities for tourism and recreation and ecosystem services like soil protection, water and air purification and the reduction of the impacts of climate change.
“Wood harvesting is important, but we cannot allow a further decline in biodiversity. This would be against the interests of the Hungarian people. Nature conservation and public amenities in the protected and specially protected state forests is of great importance. We must by all means preserve the nearly 150-year-old forests”, said László Gálhidy, Forest Programme Manager of WWF-Hungary.,,,
