Hungary

There are 8 deforested countries in Europe and they all have different causes and effects leading them. Hungary once had forests covering over 85% of national territory, and it was reduced due to clearance of agriculture in the 1930s. Wars have always been a major cause for deforestation and since World War II forest covering are reducing and forests are ruining and this is causing natural forest degradation. Native tree species have difficulty growing and the cause for this is the agricultural growth in the lowlands which is serviced by the intensive water management system. Another underlying cause of deforestation is air pollution resulting from industries and transportation boundaries which is causing a lot of damage to natural species including trees. Oriented forest management systems have given very little priority to biodiversity or ecological values and that is leading into more ruination of forests. Harvesting and mechanization has reduced biological diversity and this has caused forests to be scrappy.

Today 40% of Hungary ’s forests have been passed in private hands. Since, they are now owned mostly by people who don’t know what they are going to do with it or how they are going to use it and manage it will result in more deforestation which will lead to that about 20% of country’s forest are unmanaged. By having an openness situation, the weakness of these forests has been increased a lot in illegal harvesting and mechanization. Current forests owners have little knowledge of how to handle and manage the forests and this is increasing the risk of forest quality that it will be soon damaged.

Nowadays, marketing and financing are the underlying causes of forest loss in Hungary and new markets and new values are increasing this pressure. Non-timber forest products use is now heading for supplying foreign markets and is becoming unsustainable. People in Hungary today don’t really care much about their forests and how much damage and problems they are bringing to their environment, “people want a wealthy society and not a healthy society.”