Greenfo.hu:
Hungarian green compass on the web

Our website www.greenfo.hu is the most popular environmental portal in Hungary. It is a unique starting place for anyone searching information related to the environment. It serves also as a non-profit green news-agency.

The mission of our site is:

1/ to improve the communication between the environmental civic associations;
2/ to provide environmental information and news for the written and electronic media;
3/ to provide comprehensive information on green topics and the environment to the public at large.

We provide many useful services for the general public, journalists, environmental NGOs, scientists, institutions and industry, in Hungarian language. All materials on our web-page can be freely used in the media and for educational purposes. The web-page have many interactive features: associations and individuals can send us their news, program recommendatories, press releases through the web, which, after checked, will be published on the web-page.

12 000 different people visit our pages per month; they download 80-100 000 pages. More and more media use our news, press releases and press-invitations. Our notice board of environmental jobs became successful: several people found a job using it.

Our web-pages are maintained by the Hungarian Society of Environmental Journalists, a non-profit, independent organization. If you can financially support our efforts in preserving the environment, please contact us! We gratefully accept any amount you can spare. We will use your entire donation in our projects related to our web-sites.

Here you can find a catalog of other Hungarian environmental sites in English language.

The web-site greenfo.hu offers the following free services:

• Daily updated environmental news
• Databases:
  -searchable database of the Hungarian green organizations, environmental companies and individuals. Contains 1400 items.
  -phone-book of the environment-related governmental organisations
  -phone-book of the Hungarian Network of Ecocounselling Offices
  -mailing lists and news-letters
  -environmental information of general interest
  -academic dissertations
  -green education
• Program guide:
  -conferences, meetings
  -expositions, fairs
  -green demonstrations, actions
  -educational programs, trainings
  -excursions, summer-camps
  -contests
  -green events, programs and actions in Hungary
  -green TV and radio programs.
• Press-room:
  -invitations for press conferences
  -press releases
  -press monitoring service
  -press photos
• Conservation column:
  -conservation news
  -protected plants and animals in Hungary and the European Union
  -protected areas of Hungary
  -endangered habitats
  -regulation, law
  -links
  -dictionary of ecological terminology
• Notice board of environmental jobs: registered users can put job advertisements for free.
• Observer: guide of new books, CD-roms, periodicals and other green publications.
• „Green navigator“: links to environmental websites.
• Portrait column: interviews
• „Green lawyer“:
  -database of environmental regulation and laws
  -„the lawyer answers“: readers can ask questions trough the web
  -forms, case-studies
  -„who to ask in environmental law“
• Calls for competition, tenders and grants
• European Union column:
  -news
  -regulation
  -links
• „Junk shop“: notice board of unneeded objects, which can be useful for others – in order to reduce the amount of waste.
• „Green movement“ column : news and information on the Hungarian ecologic movement
• Notice board of environmental information.
• Forum: registered users can exchange their ideas on environmental topics.
• Questionnaire, where readers can express their opinion.
• With our thematic search engine, readers can search our more than 10 000 articles.

Presentation of the organization KÚT

The website Greenfo is maintained and developed by the Hungarian Society of Environmental Journalists (Környezetvédelmi Újságírók Társasága, KÚT). This association was founded in 1997 by fifteen journalists. Its principal aim is promote a better, more professional coverage of environmental issues in the written and electronic media, and to enhance this way the correct information of the public at large. The KÚT is in contact with the NGO-s and the governmental institutions of environment protection. As we are a member of the International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ), we organized in 1997 the international conference of the IFEJ in Budapest, with 100 participants from 30 countries. Mária Sárvári represents regularly our association on the congresses of the IFEJ.
We have 15 part-time emloyees: journalists, biologists, a lawyer and several students who make their placement by us. We have no full-time employees.
In 2003, we received the second prize of the Sasakawa Environmental Award, for our Greenfo project.
In the beginning of 2004, we started a new home-page, www.greenfoto.hu , for the promotion of environmental friendly digital photography, and to provide a forum for nature photographers.

Contact persons:

In English:
Bálint Bajomi
Editor
Address: 1118, Budapest, Csíki-hegyek u. 20., Hungary
Phone number: +36 1 246-96-76
Mobile phone: +36 30 905-92-49
E-mail: bb@greenfo.hu

In Hungarian:
Péter Sarkadi
Editor in chief
Address: 1092, Bp., Ráday u. 30.
Mobile phone: +36 30 948-82-10
E-mail: info@greenfo.hu