Volume 11 (2019): Issue 3 (September 2019)

This paper assesses the effects of agricultural payments on changes in farmland bird diversity in Slovenia. Diversity was measured by Shannon index, while the impacts were estimated with the first-difference estimator on panel data for municipalities with and without special protection areas for birds. The effects of agricultural payments on farmland biodiversity require that the balance of financial instruments be taken into account when the agricultural policy is being drafted. The effects of payments in municipalities with and without special protection areas indicate the need to consider the landscape perspective and adapt schemes to landscape type while preparing the national agricultural policy.

In several European countries, land use changes can be analysed on the basis of the Franciscan Cadastre. Present land use data is defined on the basis of orthophotos, but the historical data is available only at a parcel level. Therefore, a question arose as to how reliable results about land use changes can be. The main aim of the paper was to analyse land use dynamics with the Franciscan Cadastre and to test the compatibility of detailed and parcel level of modern data. The study was carried out by calculating land use structure and landscape metrics for a part of the Pannonian low-hills area in Slovenia. We have observed that the calculation of the land use type structure mostly provided similar results regardless of the level of detail. On the other hand, the results of landscape metrics analysis were highly affected by the level of detail. The analysis at the parcel level showed that the forest area expanded, and fields and vineyards areas diminished. In general, today’s landscape is made of less patches, but they are larger and of more irregular shapes. We can conclude that a comparison of modern data and historical data based on Franciscan Cadastre must include generalisation to a parcel level.

High mountain ecosystems, with strong topographic and climatic gradients, are fragile and particularly sensitive to changes in land use. The abandonment of historic cultural landscapes has often led to changes in the pattern of land cover and thus, to a shift in the functions of high mountain landscapes, like fresh water supply, productivity or erosion control. In order to understand the effects of land-use change on the land-cover pattern at the local and regional scale, we analyzed and classified the mountainous landscape structure in the Kazbegi region in Georgia, located in the Central Greater Caucasus. For 13 settlements, we determined the land cover as present in 1987 and 2015, and quantified the changes over time to detect land-cover development trends for each settlement. Using a cluster analysis, the study area was analyzed regarding to topography (altitude, aspect, slope) and distance to settlements at the regional scale to gain six groups with separating conditions. Furthermore, each settlement was classified according to topography and land-cover change to obtain site-specific, comparative development trends. Our results show that this Caucasian high-mountain landscape is characterized by open grassland (67%) used as pasture and hay meadow, and natural birch forests (7%) in patches in the upper half of the subalpine belt. Within the settlements but also in their surroundings, field vegetables are cultivated in home gardens (1%). Land-cover change during the observation period mainly affected the cultural grassland with hay meadow abandonment. Moreover, shrubbery and forest expanded considerably on abandoned pastures. We further detected a strong relationship to topography that considerably varied between settlements resulting in specific trends in land-use change. Hay-making and arable land cultivation are focused today on sun-exposed and gentle slopes near the settlements. Shrub encroachment and reforestations were localized on farther distances and mostly on north-exposed slopes. Besides providing basic information about the historic and current land-use and land-cover patterns, our results quantify the landscape change during almost 30 years. A spatio-temporal analysis revealed an understanding of how land-use decisions influence the landscape pattern. In the context of societal development, regional socioeconomic processes, like shifts in the agricultural structure and population outmigration, seem to be societal drivers of changes. Our findings reveal linkages and interrelationships between natural, human-induced environmental and socioeconomic processes within high-mountain socio-ecological systems. Moreover, we suggest that sustainable land-use strategies for spatial development on sub-regional level, especially in marginal high-mountain regions, should consider topography and its influence on land-use change.

Europe witnessed massive migration away from rural areas throughout the 20th century. Spain was no exception to the rule, albeit with differences in timing and pace, and the population in Cantabria constitutes a paradigmatic case. Here, the rural exodus began early – before the mid-20th century – in some mountainous districts, but reached a peak in the 1960s and continued throughout the following decades. Since the 1990s, population levels in rural municipalities have fallen at a slower rate, while the population of the region as a whole has increased slightly. Disturbingly, the rural population has continued to decline in the early 21^st century, in an overall context of almost zero population growth. The demographic trends analyzed here are not only different in time, but also in space. With the partial exception of regional capitals and their neighbouring communities, municipalities in mountain districts have witnessed such a substantial decline in their populations that they have experienced a genuine process of depopulation. This case does not explain the all-similar cases in rural Europe as a whole, but it can help in interpreting other comparable processes in different regions of southern Europe where depopulation reached its maximum in the second half of the 20th century and still continues today.

Nowadays, the change of travel and consumption habits of tourists brings a destination into prominence. The characteristic products of the destinations with complex tourism supply appear as univocal association of ideas for the potential tourists. In the analysed Balaton region, besides the accentuated waterside tourism, the definite development of the gastronomy trends can be seen in the certain supply channels. The aim of our research was to determine the development opportunities of the market places and their place in the consumers’ preferences, promising interesting results in relation to the consumer standards of the Hungarian and international demand. We detected three major directions in our researches: the linking of the place with a product, the market as a programme and rural development-gastronomy directions. The present study aims to reveal the rural development direction: the market place forms a space to the sales of the quality, locally produced foodstuff motivating more and more people to create a more near-natural lifestyle.

The paper is focused on Family Policy of rural municipalities. National strategic documents, documents intended for implementation of Family Policy at regional and local levels and local plans/conceptions for Family Policy within municipalities of up to 5,000 inhabitants are analysed. Special attention is paid to the competition: “Family-friendly Community”. Results of the analysis show that this competition does not fulfil its mission, despite the favourable environment for Family Policy within rural municipalities. The results of the study in accordance with generally prevailing opinion show, that it is not efficient to elaborate conceptions of Family Policy within such small municipalities.

This paper is focused on local actors who are actively involved in the development of their villages. The area of rural development involves stakeholders of different levels and various positions. However, their roles differ, as do their positions in networks collaborating in the development of the rural community. In order to carry out this research, active citizens in member municipalities of the Dolní Morava Local Action Group (covering the territory of the South Moravian Region in the Czech Republic) were selected. Several techniques were used for their identification (analysis of local media, questionnaire survey, semi-structured interview). In this manner, it was possible to acquire a number of local actors from the public, private and non-profit sectors. Firstly, leaders in municipal development, whose position was examined by employing several approaches (positional, reputational and problem), were detected, and then social networks were analysed. The content transmitted within the networks, with an emphasis on social capital – a theme closely related to this issue – was also observed.

The article is a case study of a local currency, recently introduced in the rurally situated municipality of Sysmä, Finland. As a small community suffering a gradual population decline since the 1960s, Sysmä municipality has begun to innovate with several projects this millennium. Here, we analyse as a narrative and from the viewpoint of experienced tensions, the introductory phase of one of these projects, which strictly is a hyper-local currency acting as a system of account. It is noted that there are unclarities regarding the purpose of the scheme, and that different stakeholders and other observers do have varying ideas about this purpose. Political decisions over limiting rights of issuance of the local currency to locally registered businesses; and its exclusive use for local association subsidies have created some challenges to the acceptance of the currency. Further, the currency has limited uptake due to technical issues, injudicious use of the marketing mix and difficulties with innovating in a rural area. Noting these issues and the peculiarity of the scheme amidst other typical European local currency schemes, the article also points out benefits of the scheme and potential future developments.

New Member States have been part of the Single market since joining the European Union in 2004. This step brought various challenges in each of these countries because of appreciable difference in competitiveness compared to old EU Member States. This article puts to the test the competitiveness of the Czech meat industry. This is one of the most important parts of the agri-food production, which is still a very important part of regional economics in less developed regions. Thus, it represents cultural heritage of the countryside. The main aim is to investigate specific branches of the Czech meat industry according to their competitiveness on the Single market. In the article, we make conclusion on different states of the competitiveness of three main branches of the Czech meat industry, which represents 85.6% of the overall meat export. Conducted research provided information on positive change in the export during the observed period of time, but the comparison of absolute export and import numbers did not refer to a positive development of the Czech meat industry. Furthermore, we observed tendency to locate meat production near local markets and in developed regions.

This research project aims at identifying a new network of routes and historical itineraries for the development and promotion of rural tourism in the Tuscany Region, by promoting forms of sustainable mobility in rural areas, particularly marginal ones. Religious tourism is defined as tourism, which includes visits to religious sites such as shrines, churches, abbeys, hermitages and sacred places; such places are an attraction for their religious essence as well as their artistic and cultural beauty. The ancient obsolete road system, which often survives as an archaeological relic as a precursor of the present road system, especially in rural areas, is more widespread than a layman would think. The paper refers the results of the study aimed at recovering the entire historical road that allowed pilgrims and travelers to reach La Verna (a place where St. Francis received the Stigmata) coming from Florence.