Drivers and consequences of agricultural land abandonment and its reutilisation pathways: A systematic review

Abstract

Agricultural land abandonment is a complex, multidimensional and non-linear global phenomenon driven by multiple factors and with contrasting impacts on agrobiodiversity, environment and society. A comprehensive overview of agricultural land abandonment provides an understanding of how the issue is emerging globally, the impacts it has caused and pathways that could halt the negative impacts. This study reviews the drivers and consequences of agricultural land abandonment and pathways for the reutilisation of abandoned agricultural lands. The 124 relevant articles used in this review were retrieved systematically from CAB Abstracts, Scopus and Web of Science, applying exclusion and inclusion criteria in line with standard protocols. The spatial and temporal diversity of the selected articles indicates that the majority of studies were conducted in European (64 articles) and Asian countries (44 articles). Although farmland abandonment has received research attention from the early 1990s, about 95% of the articles were published only in the last 15 years. In the case of Asian countries, almost all of the studies took place after 2014. Broadly, seven categories of drivers (demographic, household characteristics, farm characteristics, biophysical, economic, regulatory and socio-political) were responsible for agricultural land abandonment. This study found that land abandonment has both positive and negative consequences on several abiotic and biotic components of the landscape. However, negative consequences were most frequently reported compared to positive consequences, especially for agrobiodiversity and rural household livelihoods and communities. Positive impacts included enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem services. Few studies have discussed possible pathways for reutilisation of abandoned farmland. Productive reutilisation options included various farm-forest and afforestation systems, communal land management and high-value crop production. Research gaps included a framework for defining and measuring abandonment; multidisciplinary analyses of drivers and consequences; intrinsic (behavioural, cultural and geopolitical) factors affecting abandonment; and building capacity for alternative local land use options. This review provides a valuable starting point for rural development stakeholders to identify where future research is required and provides knowledge about the trade-offs and opportunities associated with land abandonment.