The almost 44 hectares of indigenous sward called Madaras Cattle Grazing located in Upper Bácska, one of the steppe pastures preserved only at a few points on the Hungarian Great Plain and therefore representing an invaluable asset, has been declared a protected area.
At the press conference held before putting up the official board signpost indicating the area, Minister of State for Environmental Affairs of the Ministry of Agriculture (AM) András Rácz labelled it an “unparalleled asset” that a quarter of the territory of the country has been preserved in a close-to-natural condition. He said 9 percent of the territory of Hungary is protected, and 21 percent is part of the Natura 2000 network created by the European Union. Although the two overlap, this is still an invaluable national heritage, a national asset, which not every country can boast. It is these areas that equal Hungary in the eyes of the public, and they are protected by the public nature protection staff, he explained.
He recalled that the 10 national parks, 39 special reserves, 172 nature protection areas and 90 protected natural monuments of the country are the result of development of more than 40 years. The 850 hectares concerned make up the network of protected areas in Hungary. The main task today is not to declare protection for large areas, but to manage them and to preserve their close-to-natural condition, he added. In the past years, work could start on declaring protected areas such special things as 41 beehive stones, 28 geological formations, including the Madaras brick pits, and 21 artificial cavities of earth historical and habitat relevance. This work has led to declaring one special reserve, 13 nature protection areas and 68 natural monuments over the past 8 years, and the consequent increase of the number of protected areas by around 40 percent and their area expressed in hectares by around 0.6 percent since 2010.
András Rácz referred to the fact that the last area declared a nature protection site also related to the area managed by Kiskunság National Park Directorate: the more than 100 hectare mole-rat preserve in Baja became protected in spring 2017, representing a key step in the preservation of this species. The last large-scale area protection measure was also associated with the Kiskunság area: the Körös-ér Protected Area of 2 223 hectares was declared an area of national relevance, protected by special legal regulation, in 2012. When declaring the Madaras Cattle Grazing Pastures protected, they took into account not only its present value, but also its future potentials, he said.
Róbert Zsigó, MP of Baja and its area, underlined in his letter that by declaring Madaras Cattle Grazing, the most important natural area of Upper Bácska, protected, another step has been taken towards preserving the environment, our homeland. And it is a fortunate and also important consequence of this decision that the declaration may open new ways to enriching the tourism appeal of the area, he said.
Director of Kiskúnság National Park Directorate Sándor Ugró noted that, thanks to Kígyó Main Channel crossing it, the sward on Madaras Cattle Grazing that is part of the Natura 2000 network provides a diversified habitat for the flora and fauna there. The name “cattle grazing” refers to the former practice of cattle grazing terminated in 2004. Since 2008, the sward has been used for sheep-grazing. The Director underlined that the most important natural assets of Madaras Cattle Grazing, an area that is part of the loess plains in Bácska, are the sward habitats, and in particular transitional habitats of the loess pastures, the sand steppe pasture and the loess pasture, and the remains of the march pasture. Professionals have been aware of the botanical values of the area for a long time. These include in particular the coloured saffron stock of more than a million and the approximately eight thousand pheasant’s-eye stems. Protected plant species there include multiflorous carnations, silky buttercups and late dandelions. Other typical plants of the Bácska loess plains present there, although not protected ones, are the creasted wheatgrass, high echium, and James’ day groundsel. The protected area is rich also zoologically. The species observable there include the helmeted mantis, the giant thynnid wasp, the Songarian spider, and it is the breeding ground of the eared owl and the hoopoe, the lesser grey shrike, the long-eared own and the tawny pippit.
István Juhász, Mayor of Madaras, said that, in addition to the preservation of the landscape and the protected species, it is a major nature preservation objective to keep up the cultural heritage of traditional livestock-grazing and the corresponding use of the landscape.
(AM/MTI)
