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.
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.