News

The Balaton-felvidék National Park Directorate is expanding with a Grassland Conservation Information Centre in Zalaegerszeg.

Even though the name of the grassland site is Round (Kerek), but it won’t be a forest… shrubs were removed in Kerek Hill in the locality of Bükkzsérc.

As part of the Grassland-HU LIFE Integrated Project, professional and non-professional photographers were invited to participate in “The secrets of Grasslands” Photography Contest. The theme of this year’s contest was invertebrates in their grassland habitats. It attracted 1165 entries, almost twice as much as last year.

Herman Ottó Institute Nonprofit Ltd., in cooperation with MME/Birdlife Hungary organizes an online internation conference and workshop on the conservation of saker falcon on 1-2 December 2021.  

The first Annual Conference of Mammalogists will be held by the Hungarian Natural History Museum and the Herman Ottó Institute Nonprofit Ltd. with the participation of the WWF Hungary in order to raise awareness and to share the novel research results with the general public.

Herman Ottó Institute Nonprofit Ltd., in cooperation with MME/Birdlife Hungary organizes an online internation conference and workshop on the conservation of saker falcon on 1-2 December 2021. The event focuses on the European population, but presentations and e-posters are welcome also from the Asian range of the species. 

For the first in its history, the Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden have welcomed birch mice to its terrariums. In early June, researchers collected two pairs of Hungarian birch mice from the grassland of Borsod County. These mice were taken to the Budapest Zoo, so that the behaviour and lifestyle of these unique animals could be observed.

Under Grassland-HU LIFE Integrated Project, Herman Ottó Institute Nonprofit Ltd., with its project partners, has decided to hold a second photo contest again this year. The aim of this year contest is to draw attention to the importance of conservation of grasslands through the presentation and promotion of grasslands habitats and species, and their high biodiversity values.

The Grassland Conservation Management Advisory Service was established under the Grassland-HU integrated project to promote conservation-friendly grassland management and provide professional support for farmers who are open to adapt agri-environmental measures.

In the framework of the Grassland-HU project, under a joint nature conservation action project of the Hungarian Natural History Museum and the Herman Ottó Institute Nonprofit Ltd., a census was carried out using questionnaires and interviews with the employees of the Hungarian Chamber of Agriculture and the National Park Directorates to learn about the status of the European hamster.

The aim of this year contest was to showcase the importance of conservation of grasslands through the presentation and promotion of grasslands habitats and species, and their high biodiversity values. It was the first photo contest focusing on grasslands, and the theme of this year’s contest was plant species in their grassland habitats.

Grassland-HU is the first nature conservation project in Hungary in LIFE Integrated Projects and it is coordinated by Herman Ottó Institute Nonprofit Ltd. The aim of the project is to restore and enhance Pannonian Steppe grasslands habitats and species – András Béres, the managing director of the Ltd., said.

As part of the LIFE Programme, more than 60 experts from 14 countries took part in a workshop in the Netherlands to find out how land managers can convert arable land to permanent grassland.

It is reassuring to see those people at the conference, whose presence is essential to the success of the project – said Bertalan Balczó, deputy assistant secretary for environment at the opening conference of the Grassland-HU LIFE integrated project at the Herman Ottó Conference Centre.

The European Commission took the decision to support 12 large-scale environment, nature conservation and climate projects, out of which two projects will be implemented by the Herman Ottó Institute Nonprofit Ltd. It is very rare in EU projects that one organization can coordinate more than one project at the same time.