Dr. Jane Goodall planted three native sapling trees on 9 August on the slopes of Sas-hegy, Budapest. The area is managed by the Duna-Ipoly National Park Directorate within the Life4OakForests project. The event was organized jointly by Dr. Goodall’s Roots&Shoots programme and Life4OakForests project.
Sas-hegy is a unique biodiversity ’hotspot’ in a suburban area of Budapest where several hundred species live together: such as a great number of orchid species, an endemic variant of common pink (Dianthus plumarius subsp. regis-stephani), greater pasque flower (Pulsatilla grandis) or different spices of spiders and reptiles or the great capricorn beetle. These precious species are endangered by human existence and invasive shrub species such as lilac (Syringa vulgaris), black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) and common mahonia (Mahonia aquifolium).
Dr. Goodall contributed to the Life4OakForests project, which aims to restore natural oak forests in different project areas in Hungary and Italy, with planting native saplings of Sorbus danubialis – an endemic whitebeam species, wild pear (Pyrus pyraster) and downy oak (Quercus pubescens) together with children participating in the Roots&Shoots programme.