Forestry, Sylviculture

More than 1.7 million hectares, that is 18.6% of the area of Hungary, is covered by forests. Therefore forestry is the second largest sector of agriculture. Owing to the privatisation and compensation of the past years, the ownership structure of forests has changed. The area of forests and the mass of standing trees has also increased in 1997 (table 14 and diagram 28). A further increase in the area of forests is still an important objective. This is partly explained by the fact that forest plantation is an alternative land use. Reasonable land use can utilise a significant amount, that is about 15-16%, of poor arable lands as forests. The health condition of forests is improving though only slightly. Environmental aspects play an important role in the new forestry policy. The balance of the external trade of forestry products has improved in 1997 (table 15 and diagram 29). The commodity structure of export is also better, the ratio of processed wooden products has increased. giving Hungary more of the added value of the final product.Exports of wooden products are predominantly to Member States of the European Union, whereas imports are dominated by Middle and Eastern European countries.