Hungary

The Hungary Policy Lab brings together stakeholders including local decision makers, farmers, national parks and policy makers. It has been established with the cooperation of ESSRG and WWF Hungary.

Our ambition is that by bringing these stakeholders together, we can jointly develop and promote regenerative agriculture and water retention policies that help to overcome water loss and other challenges facing the region.

The Policy Lab examines the opportunities of water retention and adaptation to climate change in the Sand Ridge within the Danube-Tisza interfluve in central Hungary.

The area we are focusing on is elevated and arid. It sits within the catchment area of the artificially formed Donger drainage channel. It is a mixed landscape with arable lands, forests, pastures, ponds, saline wetlands, fen meadows and sand dunes.

Water loss is currently leading to biodiversity loss and depopulation. Our goal is to better understand what actions can be taken to reduce this, and how local people and stakeholders can be encouraged to take these actions.

There are already positive actions taking place:

• Collaboration with farmers to find solutions.

• Knowledge sharing on nature-based solutions for water retention is increasing.  

• No tillage methods that reduce soil erosion and evaporation are spreading.

But there are several ongoing land-transformations taking place that continue to worsen water loss and related issues:

• As wetlands dry, they transform into dry grasslands. As farms increase in scale, there is a loss of hedges and trees which previously reduced the impact of drought.

• Improper afforestation has occurred where natural grasslands and agricultural fields have been replaced with water intensive or invasive species. 

• New solar power plants are impacting local nature and biodiversity.