The Main Ways of Development in Agricultural Environmental Management in the Baltic Sea Region Countries (Historical and Geographical Analysis)

Abstract

Agricultural nature management is one of the most ancient though dynamic branches of economy The author considers the development of the agricultural nature management systems of the Baltic Sea countries through the methods of historical and geographical studies and calculates the rates of change in the areas of cultivated land and the intensity of their use. The balanced regional model of nature management is based on the conjugate analysis of an array of statistical data for the period from 1909–13 to 2014–16. The method of process modeling for agricultural production development made it possible to identify key factors affecting the dynamics of the nature use of the Baltic sea region as a whole and its particular countries. The general dynamics tendency of agricultural nature management is seen as simultaneous compression of the areas of cultivated land and the growth of crop yields, while each of the Baltic sea countries has individual patterns of these processes. In accordance with the trajectories of agricultural development, the countries of the Baltic region are divided into three subregions. In the northern subregion, which includes Finland Sweden, and the Leningrad Region, agriculture has played an additional role in the nature management system over the past hundred years. In the southern subregion (Poland, Denmark, and Germany), agriculture is the leading type of nature management, but its role has been steadily falling throughout the period of research. In the southeastern part of the Baltic region (the Baltic countries and the Kaliningrad region) the agricultural nature management is gradually recovering after the 90s crisis and its role in the environmental management system of the subregion is increasing.