Hungarian Civil Presidency: Ancient forest & wilderness need new skills & strategy for protection

Presentations by Wild Europe personnel in October for the Hungarian Civil Society Presidency programme supported strong EU targets but identified urgent need for capacity building to meet these.

Zoltan Kun’s presentation called for a joint EU strategy, drawing on Wild Europe’s definition and the objectives from the 2009 European Parliament Resolution in favour of stronger protection, massively backed by 538 MEPs and organised by Hungarian MEP Gyula Hegyi. 

The 2030 EU Biodiversity Strategy targets are valuable but need setting in a more ambitious target for strictly protected old growth forest to be restored across 15% of total forest cover, with particular focus on publicly owned land (40% of terrestrial area)

Toby Aykroyd’s presentation identified the need for private funding to bridge a shortfall in public provision if EU Strategy goals are to be reached, and land users incentivised to support not oppose adequate implementation of the Nature Restoration Law & Forest Monitoring Law. 

For this to happen the agenda for Payment of Forest Ecosystem Services (PFES) and PES in general needs reform. This should be coupled with capacity building in both the conservation sector (economic valuation, enterprise implementation, financial management) and among corporations and land users (environmental studies).