Ten Trees Planted after Each Newborn in a Unique Project

Since its launch four years ago, nearly 400 hectares of forest have been planted nationwide under the Newborn Forest Program, the State Secretary responsible for forests and land affairs said at Fenyőfő in Győr-Moson-Sopron County.

Péter Zambó noted at the handover ceremony of the 5.8 hectare “newborn forest” project by Bakonyerdő Zrt. that the government considers it important to draw attention to the role of forests and the need to protect the two million hectares of Hungarian forests.

He added that

the government is doing a lot to increase the country’s forest cover to 27 percent, which is currently 25.4 percent.

He pointed out that after the Treaty of Trianon (1920), the country’s forest cover was 11 percent. In 100 years, Hungarian foresters have planted one million hectares of forest in what is now Hungary. Since the end of communism (1989), 200,000 hectares of new forest have been planted, and since 2019, applications have been submitted for 47,300 hectares of new forest, of which 32,000 hectares have already been planted.

Zámbó said that new funds are available for afforestation under the new Common Agricultural Policy and that applications will be published soon. He noted that while in the previous cycle HUF 106 billion (EUR 1=HUF 389) were available for afforestation and forest management, in the next cycle this amount will increase to HUF 310 billion, of which nearly HUF 170 billion will be available for afforestation.

Zsófia Koncz, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Ministry of Energy, stressed that

the aim of the Newborn Forest Program is to plant ten trees after every newborn child, but at least one million trees a year.

The program is supported by the Ministry of Agriculture, but in order to achieve the climate policy goals, the Ministry of Energy supports it with HUF 2 billion per year.

László Varga, CEO of Bakonyerdő Zrt., said that in 2022, more than 4,500 children were born in Győr-Moson-Sopron County, which is why 5.8 hectares of forest has been planted in the vicinity of Fenyőfő. He added that since its launch, the program has undertaken “this noble task” every year in Veszprém County and now also in Győr-Moson-Sopron County. As the company wrote in its Facebook post, pupils helped plant more than 100 saplings. In the immediate vicinity of the planting, the foresters, together with the children, installed 15 bird houses, which are part of the network of 500 houses that Bakonyerdő Zrt. will install in its parks and hiking forests in the coming period.

Via MTI, Featured image: Facebook/Kerecsendi Berek erdő