With support from the Hungarian oil company MOL, HEPF announced the winners of the Green Belt program for the third time on the 18th of March 2008. 39 organisations won altogether 55,286 EUR (13,904,545 HUF) support on the call that was announced in autumn 2007. Both the number of supported organisations and the amount of the fund was extended thanks to the continued commitment of MOL.
Since the first call (2005), the goal of the program has developed from creating green public areas to enhancing community cooperation and environmental thinking in the broader sense.
The call that was announced in Hungary, Romania and Slovakia at the same time was structurally transformed this year in Hungary. The proposals were selected in two steps; in the first turn applicants had only to write down their ideas about the rehabilitation / development / creation of the selected public space.
Besides the introduction of the area the proposal had to comprise a sketch of the planning process and their ideas about how to involve the local community (neighbours, schools, businesses and the municipality) into it. The winners than had time to realise the process they described, and hand in their detailed proposals born as the result of this common visioning and planning. While the two-step system the selection was longer, the applicants had more time to develop their ideas. Deeper and longer contacts may have been forged within the community by way of the common work, thus enhancing co-operation and joint action in the future.
Based on the call public parks, rest parks, playgrounds and school gardens became more beautiful green areas in 39 settlements, each at least 1500 sqm, built with naturally environmental methods.
Following upon the results, HEPF announced the next call for proposals for 2008-9 in October. This also brought about a novel element: in order to enhance the community planning process, HEPF published and gave all applicants a methodological guide book, titled “How to turn a place around – A Handbook for Creating Successful Public Spaces” (see under Envents).
Bird friendly garden received the Green Belt Prize
Beside the selection the winning applicants the Green Belt Prize was announced in March, too. MOL awards the prize based on the recommendation of HEPF to the community that created the most beautiful and environment-friendly green area in the most efficient way, within the framework of a successful community action. In addition to the prize, the winner receives the same sum what they won earlier for their project. In 2008 the Wildflower Association received the prize designed by István Keszei, a student of the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. The idea of the organisation to create a bird-friendly garden activated four hundred people in the settlement. From pupils through firemen to the local firms everybody took their part in the work enthusiastically. Each bird feeder and tree have an own adopting ‘master’ who observes the expenses and the development of the plants.
