József Gráf and Josef Pröll secretaries of forestry have signed the Hungarian-Austrian convention of forestry in Brussels. The primary aim of the convention is to prepare the forest management of these countries against the global challenges, like the climate-change.
The countries of the World have been trying to treat the climate-change officially according to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, since 1992. The richer countries, like Austria and Hungary made factual commitments to reduce climate change, in 1997. These commitments are drawn up in the Kyoto Protocol, which came into effect in 2005. The aim of the Protocol is to reduce the accumulation of the gases in the atmosphere that bring about the greenhouse effect, like carbon dioxide.
Thanks to the photosynthetic ability of the vast amount and the complex structure of green biomass, forests fix carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and it is stocked up in the form of wood. According to this fact, forests significantly assist the Kyoto commitments for reducing the emissions. This co-operation can be enhanced with some methods, like supporting of sustainable forest management, or encouraging the usage of wood as raw material.
This common Hungarian-Austrian acting against the climate change goes beyond the Kyoto Protocol – it is an exemplary scientific-technical co-operation.