What is the future of abandoned agricultural lands? A systematic review of alternative trajectories in Europe

Abstract

Agricultural land abandonment and its impacts on landscape features have been a striking characteristic of many European rural areas over the last decades. Although previous research identified drivers and environmental impacts of abandonment, few described the post-agricultural abandonment trajectories. However, examining the driving forces leading to different post-agricultural abandonment trajectories is key to understand how alternative uses of these lands can be developed to address the environmental, economic, and social challenges faced in these areas. This paper reviews the literature of the different trajectories observed after agricultural abandonment and the related drivers and processes. Based on the literature evidence, we proposed a novel categorisation of different abandonment trajectories, with their drivers and landscape outcomes. In most reported cases, lands transitioned towards semi-natural landscapes and few returned to different agricultural uses after abandonment. The most common driving force of the landscape trajectory was the absence of land management where secondary succession processes led to semi-natural landscapes. Quality and state of these landscapes were variable. Alternative trajectories were essentially driven by institutional and socio-economic drivers within biophysical constraints and opportunities for (re-)afforestation, re-farming, and multifunctional uses of the land after abandonment. While abandoned lands can bring opportunities to respond to biodiversity and other environmental policy goals, the evidence across case studies suggests that adequate resources with institutional and socio-economic incentives are required to stimulate favourable development, mitigate, potential trade-offs, and support land management.

Rural land abandonment is too ephemeral to provide major benefits for biodiversity and climate

“…However, there is some indication that abandonment may be more durable in Europe, another region that has experienced significant abandonment ( 11 , 35 ). A recent review of post-abandonment trajectories in Europe found that in most cases (64.44%, or 87 of 135 studies reviewed), abandoned lands went through secondary succession and transitioned toward seminatural landscapes, although Eastern Europe and Russian abandonment may be more prone to recultivation ( 63 ). This study did not include time since initial abandonment as a factor, however, and the differences in abandonment persistence between regions merit future investigation.…”

Three billion new trees in the EU’s biodiversity strategy: low ambition, but better environmental outcomes?

“…Abandoned agricultural land has often been discussed as providing capacity for afforestation in order to respond to environmental policy goals [26]. Therefore, we aim to explore the potentially required land area for planting three billion trees on abandoned agricultural areas.…”

Forest-based climate change mitigation and adaptation in Europe

“…Afforestation of agricultural land and changing degraded land to forests seems a relatively cost-effective climate change mitigation option (Fuss et al 2018) and is among the major mitigation measures included in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted by countries to the UNFCCC. While the afforestation of degraded land can deliver substantial mitigation benefits with co-benefits to biodiversity (Lewis et al 2019;Fayet et al 2022), the afforestation of cropland may compromise food production (Fuss et al 2018). As a final note regarding afforestation, when employed on native grasslands, it has a significant negative effect on biodiversity as many species require rich, open habitats (Burrascano et al 2016).…”