Abstract
Land use changes have been investigated in the surroundings of 14 rural Montenegrin settlements in order to get specific information about trends in land abandonment since around 1950. Permanently, seasonally and less inhabited settlements with different geographic conditions were studied. This was done by interviewing local inhabitants, which enabled a holistic approach to reveal the underlying processes of land abandonment. According to the observed patterns of land use change, the study sites can be categorized into intensified, urbanized, extensified, overgrown and forested cases. The category of extensified settlements is characterized by a highly reduced agricultural management intensity, resulting in an increase in grasslands and fruit trees at the expense of cropland. This land use change is mainly related to emigrating and aging inhabitants, having less livestock. Such extensive land use is found in both permanently inhabited and abandoned villages. Only some studied settlements became largely overgrown by bushes and forest. The steep average slope gradients and a large distance to the nearest city are explanatory factors of such land abandonment. Land use intensification takes place in low-lying areas located nearby towns.
Highlights
A dominant trend of abandonment, reforestation and extensification has been found in the mountainous European areas since 1950, in line with predominant socioeconomic changes through the continent (Mottet et al 2006; Jepsen et al 2015)
Environmental characteristics and agricultural components The selected settlements show a variety in altitude, slope gradient, previous woody vegetation cover and distance to the nearest town (Table 2)
Some concepts typical for rural Montenegrin areas emerged from the interviews
Summary
A dominant trend of abandonment, reforestation and extensification has been found in the mountainous European areas since 1950, in line with predominant socioeconomic changes through the continent (Mottet et al 2006; Jepsen et al 2015). The combination of environmental, economic and social aspects act as a driver for migration in rural contexts and it influences the land use changes (Kranjc 2008). Rural, mountainous landscapes are determined as vulnerable to land abandonment (Baldock et al 1996). Traditional landscapes have been evolving gradually over time and were characterized by appropriate land use according to the local physical circumstances (Antrop 2000; Renes 2015). Initial settlements have often been established, taking into account land qualities and natural resources (LaGro 2001) as these provide inhabitants with ecosystem services on which they could rely for survival
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