Figure 50: Emission of greenhouse gases by branches
(CO2 equivalent)
1995 2000 2006 Manufacturing and construction Energy Agriculture Waste collection Transport 25
20 15 10 5 0 Million tons
Table 20: Protected natural areas, 2007
Natural area Number Area, thousand ha Of this: areas of special protection
National parks 10 486 85
Landscape protection areas 37 327 45
Nature reserves with a national significance 162 32 3
Nature reserves with a local significance 1,296 39 –
Total 1,505 884 133
Natura 2000
Special nature reserves 467 1,390 –
Bird protection areas 55 1,350 –
Ramsar areas 26 205 –
MAB biosphere reserves 5 144 –
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organisations and national park directories received a support which provided a significant help to preserve our most precious areas and species our country used LIFE funds in 2001 for the first time, up to 2007 there were 20 grants awarded with an EU funding of nearly EUR 17 million for nature protection in Hungary.
In Hungary, in 2007, forests covered an area of around 1,891 thousand hectares, a 38 thousand hectares year-on-year increase, as a result of a rise in afforestation and a decrease in wood felling. In 2007, a total of 19 thousand hectares was afforested, 5 thousand hectares more than a year earlier. Along with this, wood production decreased to 6.6 million cubic m, since 2000 for the first time below the out-put level of 7 million cubic m. Nowadays, In Hunga-ry, forests account for small proportion of areas along with a high share of planted forests and plantations with non-native species: native tree species account for 57%, non-native tree species for 43%. A fifth of the territory of the country is covered by forests.
In 2007, there was a slight deterioration in the health condition of forests: the share of healthy trees decreased (to 39%). Slightly damaged trees accounted for a proportion of 33.9, damaged and strongly damaged trees for 18.5 and 6.4%, respectively.
Unlike other countries in the world, in Hungary, since 2004, there has been a decrease in the proportion of areas cultivated in line with the principles of
organic farming, and since then the number of units farming in this way has been reducing. In 2007, there were a total of 1,441 controlled businesses. Nearly 90% of controlled areas – 109 thousand hectares – switched over yet, 12% is in the transition period.
Meadows, pastures account for more than half of them, while arable lands for 41%. Plantations account for a share of 2.5%; other areas are for fish ponds, forests, reeds and (sheep-) pens etc.
Since the beginning of the 1990s, there has been a gradual decrease in the water consumption of the national economy, in which a main role was played by a reduction in the agricultural and household water consumption. Supposedly, this thrift in the first place results from an increase in water and sewerage charges, several times higher than the consumer price index.
Between 2000 and 2007, there was a 3% decrease in the volume of water provided for households. 99.9%
of settlements enjoy the benefits of the piped water supply, while in this period there was an increase of 2.6 percentage points in the proportion of connected homes, amounting to 94.7%. There was a decrease in the number of settlements that temporarily have not satisfactory drinking water in line with sanitary regulations. In 2007, 6 settlements needed bottled water services.
In the past years, there was a significant expansion in the public sewerage network. At the end of 2007, the length of the sewerage network was 40,562 km, nearly 16 thousand km longer than in 2000. There was an increase in the volume of municipal waste waters were emitted and drained through a public sewer up to the middle of the decade, since then it has decreased in spite of an expansion in the public sewerage network. In 2007, it was 534 million cubic m, around 6% less than a year earlier. An ever increasing part of waste water drained through a public sewer undergoes biological and tertiary treatment: the share of sewage waters undergone at least biological treatment rose from 58 to 72% during the past 7 years.
There is a decreasing tendency in the total waste volume generated in the past years, but there is an ongoing change in the proportion of the types of waste.
In 2007, the volume of municipal solid waste dropped after an increase in earlier years; its quantity Figure 51: Area under organic farming
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 140
130 120 110 100 90 80 70 60 50 Thousand ha
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87 per head was 457 kg. Municipal liquid waste amounted
to not more than 0.5 cubic m per head. Traditional practices account for a decisive part (87%) of the collection of municipal solid wastes, selective waste collection for only 7%, while junk clearance and public area cleaning for the remaining part.
Landfill is the least environment-friendly mode for waste management, because it results in a contamination of heavy metals and other toxic components from leachate, in an emission of greenhouse gases, in the loss of valuable areas and in an increase of road traffic. In spite of this, this is the most widely used procedure of waste management, because it has lower specific costs than incineration or recycling. Landfill accounts for 83% of the disposal of municipal solid waste in Hun-gary and 74% of this quantity gets into a landfill that is subject to technical protection measures.
Energy use and a decrease in the volume of waste are made possible by incineration. It has disadvantages like emitting poisonous gases, e.g. dioxins, resulting in slag which later will be landfilled (although a part of
it can be recycled) and causing water pollution as a result of gas cleaning.
In the national economy environmental in vest-ments amounted to HUF 171 billion in 2007, in which direct investments accounted for 88%, while the so-called (process) integrated environmental investments for 12%. Real value of total environmental investments dropped by nearly 20% compared to the year before.
Direct environmental investments increased in volume by 5%, while integrated investments fell to a third.
Compared with 2001, only a slight decrease was seen in 2007 in the real value of direct investments, while that of integrated investments fell to less than its half.
Nearly half of the investments in 2007 were for sewage treatment and around a fourth of them were for preventing air pollution. 29% of investments were carried out by public administration and an overwhelming share in its investments were direct ones. Most of the integrated investments were in manufacturing (41%) as well as at businesses classified to the industry of other community, social and personal service activities (40%). In 2007, environmental investments amounted Table 21: Generation of wastes
Type of waste 2000 2006 2007
Municipal solid waste, thousand tons 4,552 4,711 4,594
Municipal liquid waste, thousand cubic m 6,172 5,027 4,690
Hazardous waste, thousand tons 2,554 1,366 1,082
Industrial and other corporate non-hazardous waste,
thousand tons 10,062 8,204 7,489
Figure 52: Disposal of municipal solid waste, 2007 (percentage distribution)
Landfill Incineration with energy production Recycling Other procedures
Figure 53: Environmental investments by type of funding in agriculture, industry and
services not in the public administration 140
120 100 80 60 40 20
0 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Billion HUF
Own resources EU and state aid Support from local governments Other
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to HUF 46 billion in manufacturing, a year-on-year increase of 57% at comparative prices.
In 2007, nearly 94% of the environmental in vest-ments of businesses outside the public ad min is tration were own funded, while the share of direct EU and state funding was 5%. The proportion of investments implemented with the use of external funding decreased in 2007 compared to the year before mainly as a result of a sharp decrease (nearly 80% in volume) in state-funded investments.
In the national economy, in 2007, intra-or gan i sa-tion al environmental expenditures amounted to HUF 205 billion in value, while HUF 126 billion was paid for external service providers, in both cases decisively for waste and sewage management.
In 2007, there were net sales of HUF 370 billion of goods and services sold by businesses belonging to the
environmental industry; HUF 23 billion more than a year earlier. Out of this 98% came from revenues from producing products aiming to reduce environmental pollution in a direct way and providing such services.
Businesses employed a total of 19,800 people in 2007 in connection with the activities of the environmental industry.
Since 1993, there has been a quality assurance system to distinguish environment-friendly products. Its purpose is to strengthen responsibility for the environment and to stimulate producers and distributors to introduce products and services with more favourable qualities from the point of view of the environment. There were a total of 339 ecolabel products, an increase of 40%
over eight years. A decisive share of them (88%) were construction products and packaging materials.
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