Hungarian Environment under State Socialism

From 1947 until the early 1960s Hungarian Communist Party leaders believed that environmental destruction was caused by capitalist industries' exploitation of nature in order to profit in the marketplace. Party officials thought that environmental problems would not occur in socialist countries.

By the early 1960s reformers within the Communist Party recognized the need for environmental regulations. Between 1961 and 1964 the government enacted five major environmental laws regulating forestry, water management, nature conservation, construction projects, and agricultural lands. Although these laws set high standards of environmental quality, they proved difficult to enforce.

The Hungarian government made efforts to protect wildlife and natural habitats. Hungary opened its first national park, Hortobägy, in 1973. In 1979 and 1980 five of Hungary's conservation areas were designated biosphere (the part of the world in which life can exist) reserves by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. In 1974 the government permitted the establishment of a major nature conservation organization, the Hungarian Ornithological and Nature Protection Society.

Despite these advances, many Hungarian citizens felt excluded from government decision-making processes on environmental issues. In the early 1980s, when Hungary's government proceeded with a joint project with Czechoslovakia to dam the Danube River between the towns of Gabcikovo and Nagymaros, a small group of Budapest intellectuals formed the Danube Circle. In 1984 the Danube Circle collected signatures on a petition opposing the dam and held the first public debates on the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros dam project.

Two of the Danube Circle's founders, Janos Vargha and Judit Väsärhelyi, were given Sweden's Right Livelihood Award. By the late 1980s the Danube Circle had established a movement that attracted tens of thousands of participants to its protests despite the threat of police violence. In 1989 Hungary's political system changed, and newly elected officials cancelled Hungary's participation in the dam project.

Environmental Issues and Actors after Socialism. After 1989 the movement against the damming of the Danube faded as participants left to join new political parties. Hundreds of environmental organizations formed around the country.

By 1997 Hungary had 504 registered environmental organizations. Whereas the Danube movement had been concentrated in Budapest, many new groups were founded in towns in the provinces. New environmental groups worked on diverse issues, including environmental education, waste management, wetlands protection, and public transportation.

The new government revised environmental laws and passed new ones. Harmonizing environmental regulations with those of the European Union has been a major goal because Hungary is projected to enter the European Union in 2004. Important new laws require environmental-impact assessments for potentially harmful projects and hold polluters responsible for environmental cleanup. The national park system also expanded, adding seven parks between 1991 and 2002.

Economic change led to ecological change. As many of the polluting industries from the socialist era closed their doors, air quality improved in many parts of the country. In some cases, however, the shift to a market economy worsened environmental conditions. For instance, growth in personal consumption and wastefully packaged imported goods resulted a glut of consumer packaging waste.

Hungary came into conflict with its neighbors over transboundary environmental issues several times in the 1990s. When the new Hungarian government backed out of the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros dam project in 1990, the Slovak government built a channel and hydroelectric station on the Danube. In late 1993 the Hungarian and Slovak governments brought lawsuits against each other in the European Court; these were not resolved until 1997.

A second transboundary environmental problem developed in early 2000 when a gold-mining operation in Romania spilled cyanide into the Tisza River. As the poisoned water traveled through Hungary, thousands of tons of fish died. The Hungarian government filed suit against the multinational mining corporation operating the mine. Hungarian environmental organizations participated alongside Romanian and Yugoslavian environmentalists in an investigation of the spill, organized by the European Union's Baia Mare Task Force.

During the 1990s Hungary made advances in passing environmental legislation, supporting the growth of citizens' organizations, and improving access to environmental information. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, policymakers must continue working to incorporate public participation and longterm ecological sustainability into Hungary's development strategy.