National Land Use Policy against the Misuse of the Agricultural Land—Causes and Effects. Evidence from Poland

Abstract

Land suitable for agricultural production is limited and should be used in a sustainable manner and protected. Countries of the former communist bloc, where the majority of the agricultural land was dynamically privatized, are in a special situation. Land has been used there also to serve the needs of growing cities, for investment speculation and as entitlement to subsidies. Therefore, legal regulations protecting agricultural land were introduced. In the case of Poland, particular attention should be paid to the radical act of 2016, which completely stopped the sale of Treasury resources and strongly limited sales on the private market. However, the new act caused a number of side effects and various pathologies. This article examines the real effects of policy aimed at combating the misuse of agricultural land. It was assumed that most of the side effects will be observed around big cities, defined as Functional Urban Areas. The following methods were used: a survey in Polish FUAs, analysis of transactions on the real estate market in 2015–2018 and in-depth interviews with representatives of local governments and relevant institutions. The study revealed a number of pathologies, such as ways of circumventing new restrictions or searching for legal loopholes.

Overcoming Socio-Economic Problems in Crisis Areas through Revitalization of Cittaslow Towns. Evidence from North-East Poland

“…It results, as we have already emphasized in the introduction, partly from the general tendencies prevailing in Poland, especially in northeastern Poland, and partly from the local specificity. For example, in Gołdap, a peripheral city (but also in other analyzed cities), which was related to the agricultural and agricultural service functions, unemployment is largely related to the lack of jobs after the liquidation of state-owned farms in the period of political transformation after 1989 [31]. Despite the passage of time, the phenomenon of "inheriting" unemployment can be observed.…”

Life Cycle Assessment on Agricultural Production: A Mini Review on Methodology, Application, and Challenges

“…Agricultural land resources cover ~37.6% of the world’s land area and have been the foundation of human existence for centuries, as well as the basis for shaping cultural differences, the ecosystem balance and spatial order [ 38 ]. However, the misuse of land has resulted in a series of ecological and environmental problems, such as the degradation of production capabilities, the destruction of land structure and function, and the devastation of the environment [ 38 , 39 ].…”

“…Agricultural land resources cover ~37.6% of the world’s land area and have been the foundation of human existence for centuries, as well as the basis for shaping cultural differences, the ecosystem balance and spatial order [ 38 ]. However, the misuse of land has resulted in a series of ecological and environmental problems, such as the degradation of production capabilities, the destruction of land structure and function, and the devastation of the environment [ 38 , 39 ]. Since the 1990s, several methods and tools have been developed for an integrated assessment of the sustainability of agricultural systems and land use [ 40 ] in order to address the complexity of globalized socio-political and economic contexts.…”

Saving the ground beneath our feet: Establishing priorities and criteria for governing soil use and protection

“…Economic benefits also accrue unevenly and not necessarily in the national interest. The escalating profits from development can foster an ‘unholy alliance’ between the public and private sector that rewards elaborate circumvention of the law [ 105 , 153 ] or outright infringements [ 66 , 75 – 77 , 112 , 144 ]. However, it is also important to appreciate that what may appear to outside observers to be infringements may, in some cases, simply be the result of longstanding traditions of informal governance or customary tenure [ 143 , 154 ], or simply a lack of institutional capacity [ 123 ].…”

“…Lack of enforcement and governance on the ground remain serious obstacles throughout much of the world. See, for example, the studies referenced at [ 66 , 89 , 92 , 112 , 114 , 120 , 144 , 153 , 239 , 240 ]. Those ten studies cited, merely a subset of many more, draw on a range of data for their evidence, in addition to literature reviews, including land use and land evaluation records, census and demographic statistics, case studies, planning and legal decisions, stakeholder interviews and, perhaps most telling of all, spatial remote sensing of land use change, using GIS software tools such as CORINE.…”