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The Hungarian National Bank (MNB) will implement a habitat restoration project on 36 hectares in Hortobágy National Park in cooperation with WWF Hungary to offset its carbon footprint in 2024, the bank announced on its website.
The project will plant native forests, establish a field protection tree line, and restore species-rich sand grassland, preserving biodiversity and mitigating the effects of climate change. The move is part of the Green Program, launched in 2019, through which the MNB aims to reduce emissions from its operational activities by 75 percent over six years.
The bank has declared in its Environmental Strategy 2020-2022, that its operations will become fully carbon neutral. To this end, it will neutralize carbon emissions from its operations through ecological offset programs in partnership with environmental non-profit organization WWF Hungary.
Hortobágy in the summer. Photo: Wikipedia
This year, to offset its annual carbon footprint, the central bank will again implement a habitat restoration program, identified by WWF, this time in Hortobágy National Park, in the Kállósemjén area.
The nearly 36-hectare area, currently mainly used as arable land, will be restored to a species-rich sandy grassland, using native grass seed mixtures.
The aim is also to create a native, semi-natural woodland and a field protection tree line. The works will be complemented by targeted planting of protected plant species in the area, thereby increasing biodiversity.
The Hortobágy Puszta is an exceptional example of a cultural landscape constituted by a pastoral society. Photo: Pixabay
In previous years, the central bank has implemented habitat restoration programs in the areas of Geszt (southeast) and Drávaszentes (southwest).
The MNB’s environmental footprint has been decreasing in recent years, in line with its Green Program. As part of its 2020-2022 environmental strategy, the central bank aimed to reduce its operational carbon footprint by 30 percent, exceeding it by the end of 2022, when its carbon footprint was reduced by almost 60 percent. By the end of 2023, the per capita carbon footprint was more than 67 percent lower than in the base year 2019. Their target for the period 2023-2025, is to reduce the carbon footprint by 75 percent.
Featured image: Pixabay