A fifty-year-old tree becomes fifty years old in fifty years

After a brief hesitation, he says his favorite is the pedunculate oak, but he is also captivated by the beech forest, whose trees rise and connect like an energy-transmitting cathedral. The forestry expert of 10 Million Trees is also a great friend of birds, and as someone who lives in nature, he enjoys mushroom picking and hiking.

– Where does your love for nature come from? Was being a “village kid” a clear influence that ingrained this perspective in you?

Yes, the motivation clearly comes from my childhood. My father was a forester, and we often roamed the 2000 hectares of forest he managed together, leaving many lasting memories. 

Back then, there was no internet, no mobile phones, and on Mondays, there wasn’t even a TV broadcast, so we lived quite differently. We didn’t need to be pushed out of the room to go outside; rather, we had to be dragged back in. My friends and I would hop on our bikes every day, head to the “hill,” eat what we found there, and play with whatever was around us. 

I grew up in Zala, attended elementary school there, where the cooperative my father worked at was located, surrounded by beautiful beech and oak forests. Meanwhile, I was born in Vas County, where I still live, and I attended high school in Sopron, at a forestry school. As a boarding student, during practicals and weekends spent there, we explored the forests of the Sopron Mountains and Szárhalom. 

I also started birdwatching early, which was a great learning process and experience in active nature conservation. As a teenager, I spent all my school breaks in birdwatching camps, mainly but not exclusively throughout almost every part of Zala County, where we monitored various species and restored their habitats. These were the kinds of activities I enjoyed in my childhood. I literally lived with nature. Reading the books of Gerald Durrell and István Fekete was fundamental.

– So you know the forest like the back of your hand? At least the one around Gelse…

I know it, and perhaps I even feel it a bit. I’ve hiked a lot, which helps navigate it. In Hungary, you can’t really get lost in a forest; at most, you’ll walk a bit more before reaching a populated area.

– You joined the 10 Million Trees civil initiative as a serious professional, which was started by an art historian. What do you see, how much has the team developed professionally over the years?

As a prelude, I would say that I actually left the forestry profession. When in high school, under the guise of forest cultivation, we learned clear-cutting in logging, and they associated it with professional arguments like it’s economical, well-mechanized, doesn’t require expertise, etc… That’s when I decided I wouldn’t do this because that’s not why I came here. 

I chose the path of regional development instead, dealing with projects related to this, energy conservation, and sustainable development since ’97. I worked on many habitat reconstruction programs, developed and led environmental projects, and was also a climate protection advisor, but I missed the forest. 

When I read Iván’s post in 2019, it was an extremely hot summer, and I was glad that finally not only professionals understood how serious the situation was. Moreover, Iván writes excellently and can really reach people – foresters don’t write texts like that – so I felt I had to connect. 

At first, I just wrote a list of about ten items on how to get started and what mistakes to avoid, but I had a desire to act and a motivation to ensure this process didn’t die out due to professional oversight. 

After that, they called me, we met, and since then I have been a committed member of the 10 Million Trees initiative. I started with little knowledge myself, and I laugh at myself now, remembering how as a schoolchild, I used to peel sunflower seeds for bird feeding… This community also started with similar good intentions but little concrete knowledge. 

Today, we have reached a point where there is a central team equipped with professional knowledge, capable of coordinating hundreds or even thousands of volunteers correctly from a professional standpoint each year. For the core team, neither afforestation nor tree planting in densely built urban environments poses an insurmountable challenge, and importantly, they can implement all these tasks professionally.

– What is your specific role at the foundation, and how much time can you dedicate to this volunteer activity?

I became the forestry expert of the team, assisting with the professional aspects related to tree planting, but I am also involved as a project developer and operational advisor in the processes. 

Initially, it was important to explain even the basic forestry concepts, such as that a fifty-year-old tree takes fifty years to reach its size and appearance. To ensure it reaches this age, one must know what is necessary for its planting and care, and it is important to know how much space each tree species requires, and so on. We started from scratch, explaining the basics of the profession to teachers, economists, and civilians with my expert colleagues, including gardeners and forest ecologists. 

Today, the inner circle knows a lot, and we really only need to fine-tune the processes; we are mainly needed during the planning phase. There is a core group of 20-30 people who already have a substantial professional background. It was a very important realization from Iván and his team from the very beginning that it needs to be professionally grounded; otherwise, it won’t work. 

And how much time do I dedicate to it? 

I always live my life at 120%, and when I commit to something, I do it wholeheartedly. Initially, I thought I would dedicate 2-3 hours a week to it, but now, if I called it a full-time job, my family wouldn’t be surprised. We just returned from a tree planting in Transylvania.

– Hopefully, there are fewer and fewer climate change deniers, but most people waver between “the scientists will solve it” or “what an individual can do is just a drop in the ocean.” What are your thoughts on the issue of personal responsibility?

You decide how much you drive, how much you buy, how much energy you use, how you shape your life. Personal responsibility cannot be denied. But it’s also important to see that those truly in decision-making positions are the ones who control resources, who shape the regulatory environment that directly affects our lives. Although, ultimately, we elect this economic and political power… 

Much depends, of course, on the communication that influences the decisions of individuals and economic players, and the media that influences it, whose role is more important and responsibility much greater than people think. But I believe that overall, this is a shared responsibility, even if the extent varies among different stakeholders.

– A recent survey has been published that shows the forest coverage of European countries on a map. Hungary, to put it mildly, does not perform well; we are among the last. Why do you think politics doesn’t engage more with this? Is it not possible to campaign successfully with environmental protection?

Two-thirds of our forests were annexed from the country after Trianon. Unfortunately, this is a fact. It is more worthwhile to view the Carpathian Basin as a whole, as today’s Hungary is the fertile plain in the middle, fundamentally a food-producing region. 

Although, as everywhere, before human times, the area of today’s Hungary was largely covered by forests, this does not necessarily make forest coverage comparisons relevant with predominantly mountainous Austria or Slovakia. 

Yet such a map is very important because it confronts people with the facts and strengthens the demand for a higher proportion of forest coverage. We currently have 2 million hectares of forest, and growth is important and possible. 

The official government goal is to increase the forest area by 700,000 hectares to around 27%. The EU average is 39%. At the same time, it is equally important that our existing forests are of good quality, with high biodiversity, native and climate-resistant species, and great diversity in age and tree species composition. This would be the rational goal, along with increasing wooded areas, shelterbelts, and tree lines in agricultural areas and around our living environments. The 10 Million Trees initiative plays a significant role in this. 

If all goes well, an EU regulation related to this will soon come into effect, requiring 4% of every large agricultural area to be kept green, which can largely be wooded areas.

– What is your vision for the future? Are you an ecological missionary who acts for life? How much do you believe that change is possible?

Like everyone, I do this because I love it and because I believe in it. I have to think about the future, as I have four daughters, and I have plenty of responsibility towards my family. Besides, planting trees feels very good, it only does good, it recharges and energizes me. I am also motivated by the fact that we are doing something useful, and all this with a team whose members listen to each other and act effectively along beautiful ideals.

– Do you have, say, three pieces of advice for the average person: how can we contribute to improving the situation?

There aren’t three, rather just one: the most important thing is to try to view the current ecological and climate situation in a complex way. We cannot single out one thing that would have the greatest impact among our actions. Instead, we must always be aware that every decision we make somehow affects our environment. Everything is interconnected. 

In an ecosystem, a single leaf simultaneously serves as a micro-power plant for the tree, provides shade for the litter, or a small resting place for a caterpillar. 

With every action we take, we exert a complex impact, and we should never lose sight of this. We should strive to exert the smallest possible impact. 

Even if we buy a greener product, its production requires fossil energy, its transportation causes local air pollution, and something must be done with its waste. All this requires land, which is why forests were cut down at some point. 

For example, solar or wind energy is not the cleanest energy – rather, it is the energy that is not consumed. We cause the least harm when we consume less, live closer to nature, and compensate as much as possible for our unavoidable harmful impacts. Planting a biodiverse forest is truly a good solution for that! 

Another important thing is not to underestimate education and setting an example for our children. What will work is what we show; actions have great power. After all, that’s already two pieces of advice… 

The third is to buy wine from local producers. Are you writing this down? Well, never mind, I stand by it…