Hungary

Budapest Zoo is the place where regardless of age, everyone finds something entertaining! In Budapest Zoo you can see wide range of the biodiversity, more than 2000 animals of … species from the African savannah to the Arctic area. As one of the oldest zoos in the world, Budapest Zoo looks back on great past and many of its monuments witnessed historic events. The traditional tasks of zoos have changed a lot in the past decades. The original show-presentations were followed by descriptive zoological, ethological, physiological researches. Later the educational purposes appeared as well as the efforts for conservation of endangered species.

The Department for Agrobotany at Tápiószele is responsible for the collection and conservation of field and vegetable crop genetic resources over more than fifty years, and it plays a central role in conservation of agro-biodiversity in Hungary. The gene bank of Tápiószele currently maintains more than 85 000 accessions of 1820 taxa. Moreover, the Pannon Seed Bank will be established at the gene bank of Tápiószele for the the long-term seed preservation of the wild vascular flora of the Pannonian biogeographical region in order to assist and complement in situ species conservation activities. The Department for Agrobotany at Tápiószele takes part actively in international conservation programmes (e.g. European Cooperative Program for Crop Genetic Resources – ECPGR, PGR Forum, EURISCO).

Diverziti Association was founded at the beginning of 2010 with the main aim to communicate and raise public awareness on biological and cultural diversity and to promote green solutions, especially among young people. To reach our goals we create environmental education programs mostly for youngsters, give presentations at schools, organize activities and games in terms of environmental issues, organize excursions, promote green lifestyle, advertise and translate environmental documentaries and maintain a webpage to communicate up-to-date international news in relation to biological and cultural diversity and green technology. The founders of the association are environmental professionals, geographers and engineers.

-The idea was to create an online platform in the Central European region, where users can actively learn and share knowledge and information about nature conservation and CO2 emission savings. Supported by EU funding, a Hungarian web-development agency together with a local association have made this idea happen. Greenmania is a non-profit portal and focusing on two major subjects: the values of protected areas and sustainable living. It is going to cover 3 countries together about 50 protected areas within the coming 6 months. You can find protected areas and species on a map interface, where emphasize given to Natura 2000 sites and their indicator species. -A régió első zöld közösségi oldala. A tagok közösen készítik a tartalmakat és megosztják azokat egymással. A közösségi oldalakon megszokott fórum, fotómegosztás funkciók mellett azonban a szelektív hulladékgyűjtőket, kirándulóhelyeket is fel lehet tölteni az oldalra, továbbá térképen jelölni, hogy azok hol találhatóak. A GreenMania védett területek és védett fajok leírásaival, fotóival is segíti egy hétvégi kirándulás és a környezettudatos életmód megszervezését folyamatosan bővülő információkkal. Célunk, hogy a környezettudatos internetezőket közelebb hozzuk egymáshoz, és a zöld civil szervezetekhez. 2010 folyamán számos rádióhirdetéssel, nyomtatott kiadvánnyal fogjuk ösztönözni a természetszerető embereket, hogy kerkedjenek fel egy kirándulásra, előtte-utána pedig használják a Greenmania-t!

The mission of the National Society of Conservationists (NSC), comprising of over 100 Hungarian member groups, is the comprehensive protection of nature, as well as the promotion of sustainability. Members of the Society are represented in all counties of Hungary, striving for the protection of natural heritage and the prevention of environmental degradation. The Society plays an important role in civil environmental movements across Europe and on a global scale – in cooperation with international organizations, especially the Friends of the Earth International network.

PAN Parks welcomes the declaration of the International Year of Biodiversity as we also look to the opportunities triggered by natural succession and ecosystem dynamics to protect global biodiversity. In PAN Parks Wilderness areas, the priority is protecting ecosystem dynamics and supporting the protection of biodiversity - ecosystem dynamics link.

Many examples of this could be provided so a page on our website will be devoted to providing a collection of case studies, interviews, articles on the relation of wilderness and biodiversity and the PAN Parks efforts to protect biodiversity through wilderness protection.

The UNION will assist Member Institutions in their dealings with national policy and will represent the interests of SMEs at International - and United Nations - Organisations based on professional analysis of actual situations, in the event of global economic crisis and the challenges and problems of SMEs in the 21st Century. Thus the UNION will efficiently and effectively contribute to present proposals for solutions and reforms on a regional level that can improve the business environment for SMEs in the sense of the World Bank Group “Ease of Doing Business”.