Introduction

The Hortobágy Environmental Association

The Hortobágy Environmental Association was founded in June 1993 in Balmazújváros with objectives such as to carry out nature and bird protection work both in protected and unprotected areas, as well as to facilitate bird protection activities and enhance the intensity of ornithological research in the area of the wider-sense Hortobágy region, by co-operating with the Hortobágy National Park and by complementing state nature conservation activities. Given the years of drought that time, our primary aim was to establish wetland habitats for the protection and population growth of shorebirds (Charadriiformes). Our original objective, which has only slightly been modified since then, is to protect the Hortobágy habitats and birdlife to the greatest possible extent with the co-operation of local farmers, conservation organisations and young people, as well as to restore and rehabilitate damaged but still valuable habitats and create new wetland habitats. Activities aiming at the objectives defined in the HEA's conception are generally carried out by three to five employees and 30-60 trained volunteers.

Our main activities

  1. The implementation and management of sodic lake and sodic marshy meadow habitat restoration in damaged areas.
  2. Creation and management of wetland habitats unsuitable for agricultural cultivation and of areas representing no significant natural value (disused paddy fields, borrow pits, abandoned goose farms).
  3. Funding agricultural businesses to promote the introduction of plant communities necessary for the protection of Great Bustard (Otis tarda).
  4. Implementation of Breeding and Migratory Bird Monitoring Program and publication of results (eg. the handbook titled The Birds of the Hortobágy).
  5. Practical (winter feeding, placing out artificial nests, nest guarding) and theoretical (permanent exhibition, education, publications) raptor protection in the Hortobágy.
  6. Elaboration and practical application of a protection scheme for globally threatened species such as Slender-billed Curlew (Nume­nius tenuirostris), Red-breasted Goose (Branta ruficollis) and Lesser White-fronted Goose (Anser erythropus) in the Hortobágy.
  7. Ecological education of students.
  8. Research promoting conservation works.
  9. Long-term conservation of areas managed by us with the help of our own livestock.
  10. Restoration of grasslands and wetlands in the Magdolna-puszta and in the Nagy-szik near Balmazújváros.
  11. The publication of the handbook titled The Birds of the Hortobágy, which incorporates the results of all ornithological research conducted in the Hortobágy, presents the breeding and migrating bird species of the region as well as their population size and geographical range.
  12. From 2003 the publication of an annual ornithological volume titled Paludicola with the co-operation of the Hortobágy National Park.

 

We request that you kindly support our programmes. Besides financial and 1% income tax contributions, ingenious domestic animals (Hungarian Flecked and Grey Cattle, horses, donkeys, Mangalica pigs, Racka sheep, Cigája sheep, goats), fodder, horse carts, shepherds’ equipment, wood (boards, posts, slats), ingenious saplings, building materials (bricks, tiles), old furniture etc. are also appreciated.