Please download the background material "Land use and biodiversity in the Homokhátság, Central Hungary" (pdf) and read the following briefing below. It will introduce the Homokhátság territory, local socio-ecological issues, key actors and conflict points to be used as working material to the participants.


In the attempt to reflect the complexity of the stakeholders we asked experts to present their opinions and viewpoints on the biodiversity issues in relation to the Homokhátság. Resource persons from Institute of Botany of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, National Development Agency, Ministry of Environment and Water, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Kiskunság National Park have been cordially invited to a panel discussion on Tuesday at 14.15 - 15.45. The actual discussants are to be confirmed. The panel discussion is moderated by Ms. Angela Guimaraes Pereira (EU JRC).


Short introductions from the stakeholders


Örs Marczin (Ministry of Environment and Water): Interventions to improve the water regime of Danube-Tisza interfluvial sand ridge region: Pilot projects planned in the framework of the Environment and Energy Operative Programme for 2007-2013 (pdf)
Miklós Maácz (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development): Rural Development in Hungary: Development of irrigation and amelioration systems. New Hungary Rural Development Programme 2007-2013 (pdf)


 

Valuation of Ecosystem Services by Local Communities in Hungary
(Briefing of an ongoing research project by Environmental Social Science Research Group Institute of Environmental and Landscape Management St. Istvan University, Gödöllő, Hungary)

 

The two research sites, where interviews were conducted to compile an inventory of local ecosystem services, lie in Central Hungary between the Danube and Tisza rivers, no more than fifty kilometers far from each other. Based on approx. a hundred semi-structured interviews, the most important ecosystem services for local people were identified and the most important changes, over time, in the provision of ecosystem services were also recorded. This empirical work serves as the basis of a participatory evaluation of ecosystem services taking place in 2008 in the research areas.

One of the research sites belongs to the so-called Homokhátság Environmentally Sensitive Area and comprises four settlements that surround a protected area with juniper-poplar vegetation that developed on sand dunes shaped by the predominant north-western and south-eastern winds. The whole process of succession on sandy soil can be recorded here from the open grassland vegetation to the poplar-juniper forests comprising endemic plant species and an ample insect population. Saline lowlands, desiccating lakes and fragile wetland areas encompass this area which makes it a superior nesting place for songbirds and waterfowls (Tóth, 1979; Rakonczay, 1987). Rare and endemic species are maintained in this area such as Dianthus diutinus, Ephedera distachia or Festuca Vaginata (Bíró et al. 2003).

Since the Middle Ages, grazing animal breeding had been the most widespread land use practice which had led to the emergence of shifting sand dunes. Thus, at the end of the 19th Century, huge open access and community lands were divided up and given to peasants to plant vineyards and orchards to save the close market towns from shifting sand. From that time on, animal husbandry has lost its significance continuously while viniculture and forestry have become dominant. In the second half of the 20th Century, many efforts were initiated to make this area more favourable to agriculture: marches were drained, sand dunes were graded and monocultures (vineyards and arable lands) expanded. Only the poorest land were left in private property, while the remaining sand dunes became strictly protected (the second national park of Hungary was established here). Land use changes has continued after 1990, although viniculture, forestry and, to a smaller extent, extensive animal breeding are still dominant, while ecotourism and recreation emerged as new forms of ecosystem service provision.

The other research site is situated at the conjunction of the eastern sand dunes of Homokhátság and the wetland area (backwater) of river Tisza, and comprises two settlements. The significance of this area lies on one hand in the duality of natural conditions (soil types, water system, vegetation, etc.), and in the relatively untouched state of the backwater on the other. This is one of the few places in the Hungarian Great Plain where streams come to the surface and feed the marshes and swamps lying along the river if the flood lags behind. The area has a unique flora and fauna, which justifies nature protection. Among others Sparganium erectum, Nymphaea alba and Hydrocharis morsus-ranae create remarkable plant associations in the backwater area, while Trapa natans and Arum alpinum are valuable rare species. Along the backwater, there are still some small patches of Salicetum albae-fragilis, another unique habitat in the Great Plain. The area provides habitat for a great variety of song birds, and a very rare bat species, Myotis dasycneme (Tóth, 1979). The flora and fauna briefly presented above is the remnant of extensive wetlands accompanying the river Tisza before the harsh river control by water engineering in the late 1800ies. The intention to make the river appropriate for transportation resulted in a huge loss of ecosystem services concerning both biodiversity and local livelihoods. Mills and ferries were not able to provide a regular income anymore and trading with towns along the river became more difficult as the distance between the villages and the living Tisza grew to three kilometers. New ways to earn a living had to be explored, thus viniculture, pomology as well as tobacco fields expanded in the uplands, while the lowlands were used for animal husbandry and arable crop production. Fishing remained dominant in the backwater (Bárth, 2000). Nowadays, ecotourism and recreation appear here also as new forms of ecosystem service provision, while some of the earlier services seem to disappear (tobacco, animal husbandry).

References:

Bárth, D. 2000: Tiszaalpár. Száz Magyar Falu Könyvesháza, Budapest.

Bíró, M., Iványosi Szabó, A., Sipos, F., Vidéki, R. 2003. A Kiskunság száraz homoki növényzete. (Sanddunes in Kiskunság). Természetbúvár Alapítvány Kiadó, Budapest.

Rakonczay, Z. (Ed.) 1987. A Kiskunságtól a Sárrétig. A Dél-Alföld természeti értékei. (From Kiskunság to Sárrét. Natural Values in the Southern Great Plain) Mezogazda Kiadó, Budapest.

Tóth, K., 1979. Nemzeti Park a Kiskunságban. (National Park in Kiskunság) Natura, Budapest.