Tlaky globálnych megatrendov na historické štruktúry poľnohospodárskej krajiny Slovenska

Anotace: Traditional agricultural landscapes (TAL) in Slovakia form a mosaic of unique small-scale arable fields and permanent agricultural cultivations, which include grasslands, vineyards and high-trunk orchards. Importantly, these did not change during agricultural intensification in the 1950’s to 1980’s. Faced with the disappearance of traditional agricultural landscapes in Slovakia, we were inspired to collect information on their present state, distribution and the driving forces behind their accelerated abandonment following transition to a market-oriented economy. Here we describe the relationship between TAL preservation and global megatrends, and note the nation-wide mapping results, which established that 50 % of TAL area is regularly managed, 34 % is partly abandoned and 16 % is permanently abandoned. The abandonment was most intensive on steep slopes and less fertile soils, and the distance from settlements was important for both the TAL in dispersed settlements and TAL with arable land and grasslands. Although financial profit is a major factor in motivating people to farm traditional agricultural landscapes, almost 30 % of respondents showed no interest in this management, and the local farmers identified the following financial disincentives in agriculture. The main barriers to ideal management are unfavourable state subsidies and financial inaccessibility to modern tools and machinery; and these barriers are exacerbated by inadequate market forces and weak local government support. Other cultural factors that significantly influence TAL in addition to abandonment include changes in the rural culture, the attraction of diverse ways of living, the lack of successors, health and age constraints and the number of still unresolved land-ownership in some areas. The small TAL area results from agricultural intensification, and this correlates with the following megatrends: accelerated technological change (GMT 4), continued economic growth (GMT 5) and the intensified global competition for resources (GMT 7). These megatrends relate especially to the social clusters, including diverging global population trends (GMT 1) and the movement towards a more urban world (GMT 2). However, the traditional agricultural landscape mitigates some effects of growing pressures on ecosystems (GMT 8), the increasingly severe consequences of climate change (GMT 9) and environmental pollution (GMT 10).