Profile of Erdőmentők (Forest Relief Foundation)
The Erdőmentők (Forest Relief) Foundation is a nonprofit, civil organisation which works towards the restoration of sylvan ecosystems and their long-term maintenance. Our team numbers more than 1300 volunteers, organised into 8 regional centres covering the country.
Our distinctive advantage over similar groups is that in the coordination of our work we cooperate with experts and professionals from the various forester, gamekeeper, and environmental protection institutions. This enables us to view the problems to be addressed objectively, taking all aspects into account, and to plan and execute complex solutions for each separate issue.
Our activities include:
– planting, cleaning and conservation of forests, as well as helping in various maintenance works
– gamekeeping
– the inclusion of the general populace into forestry, with especial attention to children in state custody or at a disadvantage, and those with psychiatric problems
– maintenance of the Wildlife Patrol to ensure constant observation
– maintenance of a Wildlife Laboratory, which helps us to determine the attributes of specific environments and ecosystems; to monitor our activities; to indicate and help us prevent possible future damages; and in the case of an actual catastrophe, to assist our quick response with data
– organisation of regular knowledge-spreading lectures and demonstrations to all ages, but with a special focus on nursery schools
– conduction of scientific research, to enable us to further develop the environment
– educating volunteer experts, who can help untrained volunteers in our various operations.
We run several projects at the same time. A few examples of our current ones in Central Hungary:
– the change of plastic bottle bird feeders to environmentally friendly ones
– the maintenance of nest boxes with the help of students
– increasing the species diversity in the Kőbánya Forest by deploying artificial insect lairs
– planting and conservation of forests
– securing recognition to „Bearded” Populus as a protected species
– Forest photography-contest
– the „From Landfill to Forest” campaign
– the establishment of an inter-organisational Ethical Codex
– assistance in the controlled thinning of Farkas Forest
– several educational lectures
– and of course the day-to day clearing and maintenance of forests, saving wild animals, and dealing with the problems reported by the Patrol service.
We are in a close partnership and cooperation with most of the forestry institutions and companies of Hungary (e.g., Pilisi Parkerdő, Nyírerdő, Duna-Ipoly National Park), and the ‘ranger’ services (Rákosmenti Mezei Őrszolgálat, Természetvédelmi Őrszolgálat). We assist several educational centres (Diana Forester School, Babits Secondary School, Semmelweis University). Our supporters are a number of foundations and banks (Moravcsik Foundation, Állatsziget, MagNet Bank), and we also have increasing attention from the media (MTI, fataj.hu,geocaching.hu). The main work, however, is done by hundreds of determined and devoted volunteers, who all strive to make forests more natural and beautiful.