Post-socialist Land Research Articles

Rustica Nova. The new countryside in Hungary at the turn of the millennium

This paper comprehensively presents the complex transformation of rural Hungary after the turn of the millennium. The post-socialist land re-privatization provided land to more than 2 million families, but by the time of EU accession (2004) a highly concentrated large estate structure had already developed. The number of the village population decreased somewhat, but its proportion remained high at around one-third, together with rural towns people 50% in Hungarian society. Despite the surviving and hybrid structures, depeasantization, the disappearance of the traditional peasantry, took place, as a result of tourism, the new type of town-village relations, the cultural reinterpretation of the countryside and its traditions began, but the social disadvantages are still more strongly concentrated in the villages than in the cities.

Half a century of forest cover change along the Latvian-Russian border captured by object-based image analysis of Corona and Landsat TM/OLI data

After 1991, major events, such as the collapse of socialism and the transition to market economies, caused land use change across the former USSR and affected forests in particular. However, major land use changes may have occurred already during Soviet rule, but those are largely unknown and difficult to map for large areas because 30-m Landsat data is not available prior to the 1980s. Our goal was to analyze the rates and determinants of forest cover change from 1967 to 2015 along the Latvian-Russian border, and to develop an object-based image analysis approach to compare forest cover based on declassified Corona spy satellite images from 1967 with that derived from Landsat 5 TM and Landsat 8 OLI images from 1989/1990 and 2014/2015. We applied Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry to orthorectify and mosaic the scanned Corona images, and extracted forest cover from Corona and Landsat mosaics using object-based image analysis in eCognition and expert classification. In a sensitivity analysis, we tested how the scale parameters for the segmentation affected the accuracy of the change maps. We analyzed forest cover and forest patterns for our full study area of 22,209 km2, and applied propensity score matching approach to identify three Latvian-Russian pairs of 15 × 15 km cells, which we compared. We attained overall classification accuracies of 92% (Latvia) and 93% (Russia) for the forest/non-forest change maps of 1967–1989, and 91% (Latvia) and 93% (Russia) for 1989–2015, and our results were robust in regards to the segmentation scale parameter. Sample-based forest cover gain from 1967 to 1989 differed notably between the two countries (18.5% in Latvia and 23.6% in Russia), but was generally much higher prior to 1989 than from 1989 to 2015 (8.7% in Latvia and 9.7% in Russia). Furthermore, we found rapid de-fragmentation of forest cover, where forest core area increased, and proportions of isolated patches and forest corridors decreased, and this was particularly pronounced in Russia. Our findings highlight the need to study Soviet-time land cover and land use change, because rural population declines and major policy decisions such as the collectivization of agricultural production, merging of farmlands and agricultural mechanization led already during Soviet rule to widespread abandonment and afforestation of remote farmlands. After 1991, government subsidies for farming declined rapidly in both countries, but in Latvia, new financial aid from the EU became available after 2001. In contrast, remoteness, lower population density, and less of a legacy of intensive cultivation resulted in higher rates of forest gain in Russia. Including Corona imagery in our object-based image analysis workflow allowed us to examine half a century of forest cover changes, and that resulted in surprising findings, most notably that forest area gains on abandoned farm fields were already widespread during the Soviet era and not just a post-socialist land use change trend as had been previously reported.

Impacts of forest loss in the eastern Carpathian Mountains: linking remote sensing and sediment changes in a mid-altitude catchment (Red Lake, Romania)

Worldwide accelerated forest loss and the associated environmental impacts are important environmental concerns. In this study, we integrate evidence from historical maps and a Landsat-derived time series of catchment-scale forest cover changes with a multi-proxy, palaeolimnological reconstruction spanning the last 150 years from Red Lake (Eastern Carpathians, Romania) to better understand the impact of long-term forest changes on catchment erosion and sediment accumulation. We are able to consider two time windows. Firstly, we show that during the traditional (1840–1948) and socialist (1948–1989) periods, catchment changes and sediment responses, as reflected in the sediment accumulation rate, detrital input and grain size were moderate and likely reflect the combined result of known periods of excessive precipitation and local-scale forest disturbances. Secondly, and in contrast, rapid responses in catchment-scale geomorphological processes to forest loss are evident during the post-socialist land use period (1987–2010). We found that the first land restitution period (1987–1999) and the first part of the second land restitution period (2000–2002) had a greater impact on forest loss and subsequent catchment processes with sediment accumulation rates increasing from 0.5 cm year−1 to 1.2 cm year−1. Finally, environmental impacts of forest changes were strongly dependent on the size of the area deforested, its location within the catchment, susceptibility to erosion and geomorphological thresholds. In a region noted for accelerated recent forest loss, our study highlights the potential of combining historical maps, satellite images and sediment proxies for documenting such changes and highlights the need for more strategic and sustainable environmental management planning.

The Importance of Common Grazing Lands for the Sustainable Management of Natura 2000 Areas in Bulgaria

Common grazing is a traditional practice in Bulgaria. After land restitution in the post-socialist land reform, common grasslands are owned by municipalities or the state and are rented out for grazing to livestock breeders. The introduction of EU CAP area-based payments have led to a series of legal changes in common land regulations so that they are made eligible for support. At the same time, the EU nature conservation legislation requires that Natura 2000 zones are designated in a way that protects all species and habitats of European importance. Due to the historically low-intensity farming practices, it is estimated that the majority of grasslands in Natura 2000 areas in Bulgaria are common grasslands. This paper aims to analyse the available data about regional distribution of common grasslands and to assess their importance for the sustainable management of Natura 2000 zones based on their eligibility for CAP direct payments. The method used is data analysis and GIS spatial representation of both municipal and state common grasslands in Natura 2000 zones across the 28 administrative districts in Bulgaria. Based on the findings of this research work, we demonstrated that common grasslands have an important share in the territorial scope of Natura 2000 sites and can provide substantial financial support for ensuring their sustainable management.

Moral Economy and the Upper Peasant: The Dynamics of Land Privatization in the Mekong Delta

This paper examines how people mobilize around notions of distributive justice, or ‘moral economies’, to make claims to resources, using the process of post‐socialist land privatization in the Mekong Delta region of southern Vietnam as a case study. First, I argue that the region's history of settlement, production and political struggle helped to entrench certain normative beliefs around landownership, most notably in its population of semi‐commercial upper peasants. I then detail the ways in which these upper peasants mobilized around notions of distributive justice to successfully press demands for land restitution in the late 1980s, drawing on Vietnamese newspapers and other sources to construct case studies of local land conflicts. Finally, I argue that the successful mobilization of the upper peasants around such a moral economy has helped, over the past two decades, to facilitate the re‐emergence of agrarian capitalism in the Mekong Delta, in contrast to other regions in Vietnam.

Land Fragmentation and Cropland Abandonment in Albania: Implications for the Roles of State and Community in Post-Socialist Land Consolidation

This paper critiques state-led strategies for land consolidation in Central and Eastern Europe. The critique builds on empirical research about the dynamics of land fragmentation and its presumable effects on cropland abandonment in Albania. Research results indicate that cropland abandonment was driven by a massive turn to non-farm opportunities, especially migration. Land fragmentation was not a rigid constraint on production but resulted from producers’ strategic risk spreading. The negotiated nature of land tenure questions the emphasis on state initiatives and administrative procedures in post-socialist land consolidation. Central and Eastern European states instead need to support desirable adaptations initiated by local communities.

Using image texture to map farmland field size: a case study in Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe provides unique opportunities to study changes in land use patterns, because much farmland became parcelized in the post-socialist period (i.e. large fields were broken up into smaller ones). Classification-based remote sensing approaches, however, do not capture such land cover modifications and new approaches based on continuous indicators are needed. Our goal is to develop a novel method to map farmland field size based on image texture. We fitted linear regression models to relate field size to Landsat-based image texture for a study area in the border region of Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine. Texture explained up to 93% of the variability in field size. Our field size map revealed marked differences among countries and these differences appear to be related to socialist land-ownership patterns and post-socialist land reform strategies. Image texture has great potential for mapping land use patterns and may contribute to a better understanding of land cover modifications in Eastern Europe and elsewhere.

Identifying Trends in Land Use/Land Cover Changes in the Context of Post-Socialist Transformation in Central Europe: A Case Study of the Greater Olomouc Region, Czech Republic

Many countries in Central and Eastern Europe have been undergoing marked economic changes following the collapse of the former "Eastern Bloc" and totalitarian regimes. In the Czech Republic, this transition has had a profound effect on land use management that subsequently results in widespread land cover changes. This study analyzes trends in land use/land cover changes (LULCC) in the context of political and economic transformation of the Czech Republic, using the greater Olomouc region in the period between 1991 and 2001 as a case study. Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) images from 1991 and 2001 were acquired and processed for maximum likelihood classification to produce land use/land cover maps for both times with overall map accuracies between 0.8 and 0.84. Major land changes were identified using post-classification comparison and trend surface analysis. Results showed significant marginalization of intensive agricultural activities (12%), a shift in forest composition from mixed to deciduous forest (6%), and an overall increase in residential development on arable land (3.5%). Our findings are consistent with recent socioeconomic and political studies that describe post-socialist land change drivers in Central and Eastern Europe, such as decreased need for intensive agriculture, shift to ecological management of forested areas, or increasing suburbanization.

Land use change in Southern Romania after the collapse of socialism

The drastic socio-economic and political changes that occurred after the breakdown of socialism in Eastern Europe triggered widespread land use change, including cropland abandonment and forest cover changes. Yet the rates and spatial patterns of post-socialist land use change remain largely unclear. We used Landsat TM/ETM+ images to classify land cover maps and assess landscape pattern changes from 1990 to 2005 in Arges County, Southern Romania. Cropland abandonment was the most widespread change (21.1% abandonment rate), likely due to declining returns from farming, tenure insecurity, and demographic developments during transition. Forest cover and forest fragmentation remained remarkably stable during transition, despite widespread ownership transfers. Cropland abandonment provides opportunities for increased carbon sequestration, but threatens cultural landscapes and biodiversity. Continued monitoring is important for assessing whether abandoned croplands will eventually reforest or be put back into production and to better understand the consequences of post-socialist land use change for ecosystems and biodiversity.

Cross-border Comparison of Post-socialist Farmland Abandonment in the Carpathians

Agricultural areas are declining in many areas of the world, often because socio-economic and political changes make agriculture less profitable. The transition from centralized to market-oriented economies in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union after 1989 represented major economic and political changes, yet the resulting rates and spatial pattern of post-socialist farmland abandonment remain largely unknown. Remote sensing offers unique opportunities to map farmland abandonment, but automated assessments are challenging because phenology and crop types often vary substantially. We developed a change detection method based on support vector machines (SVM) to map farmland abandonment in the border triangle of Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine in the Carpathians from Landsat TM/ETM+ images from 1986, 1988, and 2000. Our SVM-based approach yielded an accurate change map (overall accuracy = 90.9%; kappa = 0.82), underpinning the potential of SVM to map complex land-use change processes such as farmland abandonment. Farmland abandonment was widespread in the study area (16.1% of the farmland used in socialist times), likely due to decreasing profitability of agriculture after 1989. We also found substantial differences in abandonment among the countries (13.9% in Poland, 20.7% in Slovakia, and 13.3% in Ukraine), and between previously collectivized farmland and farmland that remained private during socialism in Poland. These differences are likely due to differences in socialist land ownership patterns, post-socialist land reform strategies, and rural population density.

Cross-border comparison of land cover and landscape pattern in Eastern Europe using a hybrid classification technique

Eastern Europe has experienced drastic changes in political and economic conditions following the breakdown of the Soviet Union. Furthermore, these changes often differ among neighboring countries. This offers unique possibilities to assess the relative importance of broad-scale political and socioeconomic factors on land cover and landscape pattern. Our question was how much land cover differed in the Polish, the Slovak, and the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains and to what extent these differences can be related to dissimilarities in societal, economic, and political conditions. We used a hybrid classification technique, combining advantages from supervised and unsupervised methods, to derive a land cover map from three Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) images from 2000. Results showed marked differences in land cover between the three countries. Forest cover and composition was different for the three countries, for example Slovakia and Poland had about 20% more forest cover at higher elevations than Ukraine. Broadleaved forest dominated in Slovakia while high percentages of conifers were found in Poland and Ukraine. Agriculture was most abundant in Slovakia where the lowest level of agricultural fragmentation was found (22% core area compared to less than 5% in Poland and Ukraine). Post-socialist land change was greatest in Ukraine, were we found high agricultural fragmentation and widespread early-successional shrublands indicating extensive land abandonment. Concerning forests, differences can largely be explained by socialist forest management. The abundance and pattern of arable land and grassland can be explained by two factors: land tenure in socialist times and economic transition since 1990. These results suggest that broad-scale socioeconomic and political factors are of major significance for land cover patterns in Eastern Europe, and possibly elsewhere.

Politics of rural land registration in post-socialist societies: Contested titling in villages of Northwest Vietnam

Land registration has been perceived as a precondition for secure property rights and agricultural development. Yet land registration has often failed to achieve its presumed benefits. This article explores the relationship between land registration, tenure security, and agricultural development in the context of post-socialist transformations. It focuses on one key difference between socialist property and the notions underlying post-socialist land laws: socialist property law accommodated the existence of multiple layers of social control over land whereas post-socialist land legislation promotes exclusive land rights. Post-socialist land rights are exclusive in the sense that the new laws do not recognize any intermediate layers of control between the landholder and the state. The paper draws on a case study of land registration in a commune in north-western Vietnam. The research included semi-structured interviews with 65 randomly selected households and informal conversations during extended stays in the commune as well as the collection of government statistics and interpretation of SPOT images. Its results demonstrate that villagers opposed land registration and refused to comply with its rules, although registration would have strengthened villagers’ legal rights to land. The villagers resisted land registration because the new land rights conflicted with their actual land relations, which included more layers of social control than land registration could accommodate. At the same time, although land registration failed to take effect in the villages, agricultural output expanded and the forest regenerated. The findings therefore suggest the need for adjusting land registration to accommodate intermediate layers of control over land where land claims are not as exclusive as assumed by the existing legislation.