Event to attract guests from 100 nations
World Hunting Expo and Nature Exhibition opens in Budapest
The full range of the programmes on offer includes everything related to hunting from science through gastronomy and sports activities to arts, Semjen said.
In Hungary, there are 70,000 hunters, 700,000 anglers, and many thousands more sports shooters, archers, riders and people with hunting dogs so, including their families, about a quarter of the nation belong to this community, the deputy prime minister said.
Man has always hunted and today the diversity of nature, agriculture and wildlife can no longer be maintained without game management, Semjen said. If it is abandoned anywhere in the world, experience has shown that wildlife begins to perish, where, in turn, it is developed, wild game starts to thrive both in numbers and in quality.
According to the Bible, it is just as wrong to leave the environment to its fate as it is to exploit it, and just as a gardener takes care of the garden entrusted to him, the hunter takes care of the forest, the field, the game, he said.
In line with the principle of sustainability, all elements of the exhibition will be preserved and moved to a worthy place after the event, Semjen said.
Fifty exhibitors from more than one hundred countries will show at the event on a total of 75,000 square metres, which will be accompanied by six international conferences and meetings, Zoltan Kovacs, government commissioner in charge of the hunting expo said on public news television channel M1.
The government considers environment protection a priority, also ensuring the growth of the economy in a sustainable way, Minister of Innovation and Technology Laszlo Palkovics said at the opening ceremony of the international hall of the exhibition on Saturday.
Palkovics said that innovation does not exclude environmental considerations as it gives an impetus to adaptation, which is required by the constant change of the world.
Hungary has found the answer to the latest challenges, as its economic performance exceeded pre-crisis levels already in the first half of this year while the global economy is estimated to reach that level only by the end of 2022, the minister added.
Philipp Harmer, Deputy President of the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC), called the world hunting exhibition impressive. He praised the fact that the event presents hunting not in itself but as an important tool of nature conservation that contributes to the preservation of wildlife.
Event to attract guests from 100 nations
This is the second international hunting expo in Hungary, following that which took place fifty years ago, he noted.
Kovacs called hunting “inseparable” from nature, adding that Hungary had regulated its hunting sector in an exemplary way. Regulated hunting is indispensable for sustainable nature management, he added.
Occupying 75,000sqm, the hunting expo will be the largest ever event held on the Hungexpo fairground, the government commissioner said.
Kovacs emphasised that heightened attention was being paid to the pandemic when it came to accessing the event and ensuring hygiene as well as the onsite presence of health-care staff.
The exhibition runs until October 14.
