Budapest - The "Forests for Public Welfare" Section of the Hungarian Association of Forestry celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.
Man in the Forest, Man and Forest, Society and Forest – these terms show the changing attitude of the people towards the forest in the course of centuries.

The first forest-laws that mention nature protection are the 1935/IV. “About forests and nature protection”. This regularization founded the base for the public welfare usage of the forests.
The public welfare forestry developing work that started in the early 1970s in the area of the capital rose until around 1990.
The conservation of the symbiosis in forests called for the establishing of tourist centres near the contiguous forest blocks.
From the 1990s the declining public welfare services as well as the increasing human pressure on forests caused decreasing ability of recreation in the forests, and enhanced the danger to natural values.
The share of the forestry in the gross national product is little, but the advantageous effect of the immaterial service of the forest and the forestry made on the health care, the protection of nature values, the reduction of environmentally harmful factors is not represented here. These services of the forest are not remunerated by the society.
Foresters ensure the oxygen-production, society does not pay, the oxygen-market does not work!
One should not consider nature protection and ensuring the public welfare function of the forest merely professional branches, but strategic questions.
Besides the long-term management of our existing forests (the yearly amount of wood is not exceeded by the logging) the protective stocking should get significant role.
The public welfare and protective services that do not return to the forest managers from the income should be executed as a public task as well as the necessary cost should be financed.
What happens if we fail to ensure these things and the adverse circumstances for sources consolidate?
The neglected public welfare infrastructure that values several million forints makes the achievement of the desired goal – the mass recreation in the forest – impossible, because who wants to spend his or her time in a rubbishy, frowzy environment?
What is even a bigger problem is the unregulated human pressure goes beyond control, and endangers the natural values, due to the unsatisfactory operation of the park forests.
Certainly there are some people who question the necessity of a wide range connection with the forest.
Well, here is a theoretical approach: Let’s put away with all the trees, all the forests in our environment. In this world the problem of choosing material for cradles and coffins would turn out to be insignificant compared to the feeling of emptiness, defencelessness and loneliness.

The four-decade activity of the "Forests for Public Welfare" Section is evaluated on 12. December 2007, in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, during an academic conference; and a 300-page volume of study is introduced that is published on this occasion.