Some 90 percent of the development projects required for the realisation of the goals determined within the National Forestry Strategy may be financed from European Union resources, the Ministry of Rural Development stated in report provided in reply to a query from Hungarian news agency MTI.

The relationship between forests, forest managers and the public, and the middle and long term forestry strategy for the 2006-2015 period is determined by the national Forest Programme, one of the key development areas of which is rural development related forest management. The comprehensive development recommendations are included in the National Forestry Strategy.

In order to enable European Union funding, and especially the resources provided by the European Agriculture Fund for Rural Development, for the 2014-2020 period to play an efficient role in the development of forest management, all EU funding opportunities must be assessed and the possibilities within must be coordinated, the Ministry points out.

The Strategy sets down the take-.off points of Hungarian forest management, having assessed the possibilities. Accordingly, the most important development target areas with regard to forest management until 2020 are as follows: increasing the country's forest cover and wooded areas, developing the public health and tourism related services of forests, opening and improving access to forests, and the development of forest roads and trails.

In addition, promoting renewable energy production to serve local requirements based on wood provided by local forest managers and the targeted protection and development of the biological diversity of forests. The latter is a priority goal in the country's protected and Natura 2000 forests. Furthermore, funding will also be made available for the restoration of damaged forests, preventing further damage and improving the water supply of forests. The promotion of forest management methods that serve the protection of the soil and prevent erosion are similarly important goals. The scope of forest utilisation, increasing added value and the introduction of agrarian-forestry systems are also important in the interests of increasing the security of forest management.

Forest cover in both the EU and Hungary is increasing continuously, parallel to which the significance of forests is also rising. Forests reduce the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere, accumulating 3 million tons of carbon each year in Hungary alone. This capacity may be further increased by increasing forest areas and planting more forests.

According to this year's data, the proportion of land area covered by forest in Hungary has increased to 20.8 percent; the total area of Hungary's forests is some 1.933 million hectares. More than 70 thousand hectares of new forest has been planted using EU funding since 2004. According to the Strategy, forest planting must be continued, because achieving the optimal level of forest cover of 27 percent determined by the European Union requires the establishment of a further 577 thousand hectares of new forest over the upcoming 35-50 years.

The Strategy highlights the significance of the Natura 2000 network. 38 percent of this area is forest, a total of 833 thousand hectares. Almost one quarter of Hungarian forest areas, some 453,000 hectares, are under national environmental protection. The extra costs of the wide use of environmentally friendly forest management methods in these areas must be met using EU funding.

Live tree stocks in Hungary's forests are continuously increasing, representing a significant biomass potential, which is favourable because according to forecasts there will be a shortage of wood on the European markets by 2020.

According to estimates, 7.8-8 million tons of biomass is required each year until 2020 to meet increasing demand for renewable energy sources. The majority of Hungary's renewable energy usage, 79.3 percent, is based on wood while this ratio is an average of 48.3 percent within the EU27.

The system of instruments set down by the Forestry Strategy provides concrete, implementation-level recommendations for the establishment of a comprehensive, sector-wide funding system. As such, it does not promote the funding of certain key areas, but instead states that a comprehensive, interdependent and synergistic development policy must be realised in the interests of raising Hungarian forest management to a western European level. It would be justified to provide funding for this purpose at least within the current rural development financing period. The funding required would be some HUF 120 billion (some EUR 500 million), which is equal to 10 percent of total rural development funding.

Following the completion of the social debate and the evaluation and introduction of the recommendations received, the Strategy will be approved by the Minister responsible for forest management and rural development, the report states.

(MTI)