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Land use change in Southern Romania after the collapse of socialism

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Abstract

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 Argeş 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.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank J. Curtiss, S. Dorondel, P. Hostert, T. Lakes, and T. Sikor for valuable discussions and thoughtful comments on prior versions of this manuscript. We are also grateful to G. Simion for helping with the fieldwork. This research has been funded by the Emmy Noether-Programme of the German Research Foundation (DFG).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geography Department, Geomatics Lab, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099, Berlin, Germany

    Tobias Kuemmerle, Daniel Müller & Patrick Griffiths

  2. Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Development in Central and Eastern Europe (IAMO), Theodor-Lieser-Str. 2, 06120, Halle (Saale), Germany

    Daniel Müller

  3. Institute of Agricultural Economics, Romanian Academy, Calea 13 Septembrie nr.13, sector 5, Bucharest, Romania

    Marioara Rusu

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  1. Tobias Kuemmerle
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Correspondence to Tobias Kuemmerle.

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Kuemmerle, T., Müller, D., Griffiths, P. et al. Land use change in Southern Romania after the collapse of socialism. Reg Environ Change 9, 1–12 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-008-0050-z

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