Dartmoor National Park Authority

Dartmoor & Hortobágy Partnership

Although the landscapes and habitats of Dartmoor and Hortobágy are different, both National Parks share common purposes - to protect and enhance these unique and beautiful places, and to provide for public understanding and enjoyment. They also both have a long history of human use. Management issues relating to aspects of natural beauty, wildlife, cultural heritage, public enjoyment, education and other interests, are surprisingly similar and provide excellent opportunities for sharing skills and experience through an active partnership.

In November 2002, a Partnership Agreement was entered into by the Dartmoor National Park Authority and the Hortobágy National Park Directorate, supported by the Hungarian Ministry of Environment and Water. Under this Agreement a Work Plan for technical cooperation between the protected areas has been drawn up. This includes the sharing of information and publications, exchange of professional staff, complementary programmes of monitoring and research, and provision of training opportunities.

The partners believe that becoming familiar with each other’s work will help staff from both national parks to better promote the ideas of

global landscape and wildlife conservation, and of sustainable development. They believe that shared experiences will generate novel approaches to management and improved working methods.

An English and Hungarian Partnership

Hortobágy was the first national park to be established in Hungary in 1973, and is still the largest, with an area of 82,000 hectares. The original area - 52,000 ha - is now a Biosphere Reserve, while one quarter of the territory is designated under the Ramsar Convention for the protection of waterfowl. As an outstanding example of the long-standing co-existence of people and nature, Hortobágy National Park was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999. Dartmoor National Park was designated in 1951 and covers 93,000 hectares. It is the largest open area in southern England and nearly a third is designated as a Special Area of Conservation under the European Habitats Directive. It has extensive wild open moorland with granite tors, and deep wooded valleys; surrounding this is a landscape of small fields enclosed by stone walls and hedgebanks. Almost all of Dartmoor is privately owned. It is home to around 33,000 people and visited by many millions each year.

The most characteristic feature of the Hortobágy National Park is the extensive steppe grasslands or puszta. This area has formed the floodplain of the River Tisza and its ancient tributaries since the last Ice Age, and formerly had a mosaic of gallery forests, marshes and grasslands. However, as a consequence of the relatively recent regulation of the waterways and the resulting lack of regular floods, alkaline grasslands have extended.

Although it can seem monotonous, this grassland has great ecological diversity. The mosaic-like structure of different habitats supports an exceptionally rich fauna and flora. Several endemic species can be seen on the puszta, and the great flocks of migrating birds in spring or autumn (cranes, wild geese, grebes, shorebirds, etc.) are an unforgettable sight.

The cultural values and historical monuments of the Hortobagy are also of outstanding national and international importance.

The National Park has a duty to preserve and interpret, as authentically as possible, the traditional pastoral way of life of the plains and the ancient breeds of domestic animals, including Hungarian Grey cattle and “Racka” sheep.

Dartmoor’s blanket bog, upland heathland, oakwoods, caves and mines are of international importance. It is home to buzzard, dormice, and a great variety of mosses, lichens, plants and insects. Globally threatened species include otter, southern damselfly, marsh fritillary butterfly and blue ground beetle.

Dartmoor’s landscape is amongst the richest in Europe for archaeological remains.

Over half the stone rows in England are to be found on Dartmoor, together with over 5,000 prehistoric hut circles, 10,000 ha of Bronze Age field systems and almost 2,500 historic buildings.

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Page updated 10 November 2005