Land Abandonment in Mountain Areas of the EU: An Inevitable Side Effect of Farming Modernization and Neglected Threat to Sustainable Land Use

Abstract

In a period of rising concern for sustainable land management systems to achieve food security at a global scale, land-use changes demand increased attention. This study assesses the past observations and future risk calculations for land abandonment across European regions, highlighting the particular risk for mountain areas. It draws from a study commissioned by the European Parliament to investigate the situation and probability for high and very high risk of land abandonment until 2030. Revealing that land abandonment is at three times higher risk in mountain areas than in non-mountain areas, the need for action to cope with this pressure is the core result. We reveal that the high disparity in agricultural competitiveness between regions (at fine geographical scale) is the main driving force leading to the spatially uneven performance of land management. Viewing this wide set of drivers and mitigation options, land abandonment is understood as the outcome of a multitude of factors of socio-ecological systems and a combination of farm-specific, internal regional and trans-regional factors. The present dominance of narratives of effectiveness leaves little scope for mountain regions under threat of abandonment and marginalization. In this situation, policy reform would address the issue but this might turn out to be influential only if the complex nature and trade-off of the comprehensive policy framework are prioritized.

Knowledge Mapping of Research on Land Use Change and Food Security: A Visual Analysis Using CiteSpace and VOSviewer

“…Russo and Pavone believe that the mitigation potential of multiple land management policies that work together on the same land is generally greater than that of a single policy [ 61 ]. Moreover, Dax et al also confirm that the combination of multiple land management policies can save resources, enhance social resilience and promote ecological restoration to better mitigate and adapt to climate change, prevent desertification and land degradation, and strengthen food security [ 62 ]. For example, (1) strengthening the combination of fire management and afforestation can increase land carbon sequestration, enhance the potential to mitigate climate change and land degradation, reduce management costs and ensure food production areas [ 63 ].…”

Rethinking Legal Criteria for Assessing Compensation for Rural Land Expropriation: Towards a European Institutional Framework

“…Although there is abundant literature regarding the use of these methods in the determination of priorities in environmental management in different areas [52,60,61,66,70,71,80,83,84], there is still very little experience with environmental valuation in monetary terms [10,11,67]. This is a bias in the literature that this work contributes to solving.…”

“…Tgalarino et al [49] analyzes in relation to "compensation for expropriation", non-compliance with the International Standards on the Valuation of Compensation (ISVC). We cannot say that Spain does not comply with international valuation standards for the purpose of compensation for expropriation, as this is even provided for in the Spanish Constitution, but we can say that, in practice, the environmental aspects, the value of ecosystems and the social welfare they provide, are notably neglected, and this leads to a distortion or asymmetry in the valuation process [19,[50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58]. Without taking into account the judicialization of expropriation processes due to disagreements in the valuation, which is very frequent in practice, in most cases this means receiving the monetary amount in terms of compensation more than 10 years after occupation of the land, which is far from the principle of justice.…”

Using the Ecosystem Services Concept to Assess Transformation of Agricultural Landscapes in the European Alps

“…Since the beginning of the 20th century, the number of farms in most Alpine regions has decreased by more than 50%, and the share of the population employed in agriculture has decreased from about 70% to less than 5% [34], while employment has strongly increased in the secondary, and later in the tertiary, sectors [34,65]. Due to unfavorable growing conditions, such as short growing seasons, steep slopes, and small property parcels, which necessitate expensive management practices, while having low productivity, mountain farming cannot compete in national and international markets [31,32,59]. Today, many farmers generate their main income outside their own farm, e.g., in business parks, industrial facilities, shopping centers, and tourism, and the share of part-time farmers is about 70% in the Alps [61,66].…”

“…This has shaped appealing mountain landscapes, which are rich in biodiversity and provide many ES to local people, tourists, and adjacent lowland populations [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. However, institutional and political drivers, socio-economic shifts, urbanization, and technical developments have reduced the competitiveness of these marginal areas and induced a massive abandonment of alpine pastures and meadows in European mountain regions during the last century [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. At the same time, less steep areas in the valley bottoms with a favorable climate and easy access have been intensified, often managed by larger and more specialized farms [33,34].…”