Fifty years ago, in 1973, Hungary’s first national park was established on Hortobágy, which is not only the first but also the largest and best-known national park in our country – declared András Rácz, the State Secretary responsible for nature conservation at the Ministry of Agriculture, “Hortobágy, glorious wilderness.” 50 years old at the opening ceremony of the Hortobágy National Park exhibition at the Hungarian Agricultural Museum on Thursday, according to the Ministry of Agriculture (AM).
In his opening speech, András Rácz emphasized that the Hortobágy National Park Administration protects protected values on almost two million hectares from Jászság to Nyírség. The importance of the area is shown by the fact that, in addition to 4 landscape protection areas and 20 nature protection areas, there are 2 Ramsar sites and a biosphere reserve here. In addition, Europe’s third international star shop park has been designated here, and Puszta is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, they wrote in the announcement.
The wildlife of the national park is extremely colorful – added the state secretary, as not only is the variety of bird species that live here unique, but 300 of the 2,200 Przewalski’s wild boars registered in the world are home to the Pentezug Game Reserve and the Hortobágy Wildlife Park.
András Rácz reminded us that 10 national parks were established in Hungary in 50 years. They cover the entire administrative area of the country, which is unique in Europe and the world. The number of employees in national parks has doubled in the last 13 years. Currently, 1,345 people carry out nature conservation management on 330,000 hectares, in which around 14,000 native Hungarian farm animals assist them with special breeds.
The state secretary added that domestic national parks are becoming increasingly popular, which proves a social demand that the number of visitors registered at the facilities and programs has increased by almost 30 percent since 2010, and now exceeds 1.6 million annually, the Ministry of Agriculture informed.
(MTI)
