In the spring of 2025, the staff of the Hortobágy National Park Directorate organized a field day across several sites of the Grassland-HU project, which aims to ensure the long-term conservation of Pannonian grasslands and their associated habitats. Thanks to the habitat management activities carried out to date, we observed thriving plant communities at our demonstration sites.
How can we graze our livestock in a way that improves our soils, enriches our habitats, and also improves the well-being of our animals? Some of the questions are answered by the Hungarian Chamber of Agriculture in a new professional publication. This magazine was prepared within the framework of the Grassland-HU LIFE IP project.
The future of farming is moving towards regenerative practices. The Top 50 Farmers initiative leads this change. Zoltán Lengyel, the head of Táncoskert Farm, is part of the program, showing that sustainable methods benefit both the environment and farmers.
The concerted and systematic collaboration of scientific disciplines, state authorities, and the public is indispensable for the conservation of endangered species. Species Action Plans serve precisely this purpose, outlining the threatening factors and the objectives and measures of the action program implemented for their protection.
As part of the Grassland-HU LIFE integrated project, the publication “Grassland Subsidy Opportunities in the Light of the Common Agricultural Policy 2021-2027” was published by the National Chamber of Agriculture. The document is available online (see below)and on the Chamber’s website.
On November 26, 2024, a convention titled "Winter Grazing in Grassland Farming" was organized by the National Chamber of Agriculture as part of the GRASSLAND-HU LIFE Integrated Project. The event provided both theoretical knowledge and practical demonstrations, which generated significant interest among livestock farmers.
The Hungarian Natural History Museum has been surveying the population of the Hungarian birch mouse (Sicista trizona) for 19 years in Borsodi-Mezőség,the only known birch mouse population in Hungary.
The Kocsér Grassland Conservation Management Advisory and Landscape Unit Center's handover ceremony took place on 12th-13th September 2024.
Until the beginning of the last century, when the mechanization of mowing did not begin, it was a slow-paced work process that was done with hand tools and human power. The harvest progressed slowly, in a larger area it could take up to weeks, so freshly mowed, unmowed, and re-sprouted patches were created to varying degrees, creating the most favorable mosaic.
The grasslands must not only be dense, it must also be alive. Nowadays, the main role belongs to modern tools, and grass management can be carried out in a nature-friendly way. Always keep in mind: the grasslands is primarily a habitat! The species living in there, are important participants in the ecological balance, so not only they, but also the crop yield is vulnerable.
In Péter Bacsó's absurdist classic film The Witness, the communist state accuses the protagonist and his disgraced friend of passing "secret messages in ground squirrels skins" to the frogmen. According to the story, the two characters do indeed come into contact with the "dam's greatest enemy, the ground squirrel", beating the crap out of a (european) hamster.
Representatives of the European Commission's Nature Conservation Directorate have arrived in Hungary for a bilateral meeting on the Natura 2000 network. The meeting, which took place on 14-15 February 2024, provided the opportunity to discuss specific nature conservation issues and to present the results of the Grassland-HU LIFE integrated project.
Based on the experiences of the past years, the staff of the Grassland Conservation Management Advisory Service and the Hortobágy National Park Administration summarized the latest nature conservation knowledge regarding the Hungarian grassland management in their smart calendar, which was published as part of the Grassland-HU LIFE integrated project.
The Grassland Conservation Management Advisory Service held its two-day meeting in Keszthely. The aim of the programme was to exchange professional experience and evaluate the results achieved so far. In addition to the advisors, representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Association of Hungarian Livestock Breeders and The Hungarian Chamber of Agriculture also took part in the meeting.
On 28 November 2023, the fourth installment of The Secrets of Grasslands photo competition was awarded.Exhibition of the 30 best photos was opened at the Herman Ottó Conference Centre.
Grey cattle will once again graze the marsh meadows of the Nagy-rét at Kölked thanks to the Grassland project. In November 2023, the animals arrived at their new home, the recently opened animal husbandry facility of the Danube-Drava National Park Directorate.
Colleagues from the Slovenian Natura LIFE Integrated Project were hosted by the Hungarian Grassland-HU project team. During the three-day meeting, the experts got to know each other's conservation activities, good practices, and the management and funding possibilities of the Natura 2000 network.
Our grassland habitats are not as well known and popular as other ecosystems, but they are just as valuable as our forests and wetlands. Think about it: when we say grassland, most people think of freshly mown lawns in their gardens, but our country is home to such diverse grassland habitats as the Hortobágy salt marshes, the sandy grasslands of the Kishunság, or the marshes of the Őrség, which provide a home or feeding ground for countless species.
Although summer has barely passed, one of the most spectacular events in the world of wildlife, the autumn bird migration, is already well underway. There are species that have already set off during August, but there are also those that are just getting ready for the long journey to their wintering grounds.
The grasslands of the South-Hevesi Regional Unit of the Bükk National Park Directorate are in a beautiful purple colour due to the mass flowering of the Hungarian sea lavender. It could well be the emblematic plant of the Hungarian alkaline grasslands, one of the most characteristic perennial flowering plants of the Tiszántúli steppes, capable of painting the whole horizon purple in summer.