Land use change in Southern Romania after the collapse of socialism

Kuemmerle, Tobias; Müller, Daniel; Griffiths, Patrick; Rusu, Marioara

doi:10.1007/s10113-008-0050-z

Cited by 173 publications

(110 citation statements)

References 57 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Dominant land cover changes in Eastern and East-Central Europe in the 1985-2000 period were farmland abandonment, afforestation, forest overutilisation and in some areas cropland expansion (Bičík et al 2001;Palang 2006;Kuemmerle et al 2007Kuemmerle et al , 2008Łowicki 2008;Lakes et al 2009;15 Main-Knorn et al 2009;Feranec et al 2010;Hatna and Bakker 2011;Baumann et al 2011), while in Western Europe urbanization, afforestation and in many areas farmland abandonment (Hietel et al 2005;Falcucci et al 2007;Feranec et al 2007Feranec et al , 2010Schneeberger et al 2007a,b;Hersperger et al 2009;Gimmi et al 2011;Monteiro et al 2011). We argue, that any unusual processes (e.g.…”

Section: Historical Legacy and Local Adaptation As Explanations For Umentioning

confidence: 79%

Drivers of grassland loss in Hungary during the post-socialist transformation (1987–1999)

et al. 2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The increase in the speed of land-cover change experienced worldwide is becoming a growing concern. Major socio-economic transitions, such as the breakdown of socialism in Europe, may lead to particularly high rates of landscape transformations. In this paper we examined the loss of semi-natural grasslands in Hungary between 1987 and 1999. We studied the relationship between 9 5 potential driving forces and the fate of grasslands using logistic GLMs.Grassland loss was found to be very high (1.31 % per year), which is far higher than either before or after this period. The most influential predictors of grassland loss were environmental and landscape characteristics (soil type, area of remnant grassland patches), and the socio-economic context (distance to paved road, and nearest settlement, human population density). Several 10 processes and relationships can only be understood from a historical perspective (e.g. large extent of afforestation, strong decrease of soil water table). Grassland loss during the study period emerged as a consequence of survival strategies of individual farmers seeking adaptation to the changing environmental and socio-economic conditions, and not urbanization and agricultural intensification which are the main underlying drivers for the ongoing landscape transformations in 15 most parts of the developed world.Though globalization increasingly influences local land use decisions , reconstructing and modelling recent landscape changes cannot be done without a proper understanding of local history and culture. Our analysis shows the importance of large-area yet high resolution landscape change research, which may reveal unexpected patterns of land cover change, undetected at coarser scales. 20Keywords: East-Central Europe, land-cover change, logistic GLMs, proximate and underlying driving forces LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY, 28: (5) pp. 789-803. (2013) 3

show abstract

Section: Historical Legacy and Local Adaptation As Explanations For Umentioning

confidence: 79%

Drivers of grassland loss in Hungary during the post-socialist transformation (1987–1999)

et al. 2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Within the agricultural sector, an alternative would be to focus on developing certified organic agriculture. This is known to be less harmful to biodiversity than conventional agriculture (Bengtsson et al 2005;Hole et al 2005), would be much more compatible with high nature value farmland (Kuemmerle et al 2009) and would not cause difficulties with respect to Natura 2000 regulations. In addition, Southern Transylvania most likely still exhibits unused potential to develop rural enterprises of greater value, such as agroenvironmental tourism or specialty foods (Davidova et al 2012).…”

Section: Rural Development Goals Cannot Be Pursued In Isolation From mentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating rural development and biodiversity conservation in Central Romania

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

SUMMARYUnlike most parts of the European Union (EU), Southern Transylvania (Central Romania) is characterized by an exceptionally high level of farmland biodiversity. This results from traditional small-scale farming methods that have maintained extensive areas of high nature value farmland. Following the post-socialist transition, Southern Transylvania faces serious challenges such as under-employment and rural population decline, which put traditional farming at risk. With Romania's accession to the EU in 2007, Southern Transylvania became part of a complex multi-level governance system that in principle provides mechanisms to balance biodiversity conservation and rural development. To this end, the most important instruments are the 'Natura 2000' network of protected areas and EU rural development policy. Structured questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with town hall representatives from 30 villages in Southern Transylvania and local EU experts revealed that EU policies are often poorly aligned with local conditions. To date, the implementation of EU rural development policy is strongly focused on economic development, with biodiversity conservation being of little concern. Moreover, relevant EU funding opportunities are poorly communicated. Bridging organizations should be strengthened to foster the implementation of a rural development strategy that integrates local needs and biodiversity conservation.

show abstract

“…Research in certain parts of Romania has detected significant forest fragmentation and a sharp increase in forest disturbance rates since 1995 as a result of rapid ownership and institutional changes during the post-socialist era (Kuemmerle et al 2008;Knorn et al 2012). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics and drivers of forest cover change in the post-socialist era in Croatia: evidence from a mixed-methods approach

2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Extensive forests in Croatia represent an important biological and economic resource in Europe. They are characterized by heterogeneity in forest management practices dating back to the socialist planned economy of the pre-1991 era. In this study we investigated the difference in rates of deforestation and reforestation in private and state owned forests during the post-socialist period, and the causal drivers of change. The selected region of Northern Croatia is characterised by a high percentage of privately owned forests with minimal national monitoring and control. We used a mixed-methods approach which combines remote sensing, statistical modelling and a household-based questionnaire survey to assess the rates of forest cover change and factors influencing those changes. The results show that predominantly privately owned forests in Northern Croatia have recorded a net forest loss of 1.8% during the 1991-2011 period, while Croatia overall is characterised by a 10% forest cover increase in predominantly state-owned forests. Main factors influencing forest cover changes in private forests are slope, altitude, education structure, population age and population density. The results also show that the deforestation in private forests is weakening overall, mostly due to the continuation of the de-agrarization and de-ruralisation processes which began during socialism.

show abstract

Land use change in Southern Romania after the collapse of socialism

Cited by 173 publications

References 57 publications

Drivers of grassland loss in Hungary during the post-socialist transformation (1987–1999)

Drivers of grassland loss in Hungary during the post-socialist transformation (1987–1999)

Integrating rural development and biodiversity conservation in Central Romania

Characteristics and drivers of forest cover change in the post-socialist era in Croatia: evidence from a mixed-methods approach

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About