Peter Bezák

Almost 90% of Slovakia’s agricultural land is managed by holdings of 100 ha or more. The decline of small-scale farming stems from historical collectivisation, the persistence of large farms, and Slovakia’s entry into the EU CAP in 2004. In addition to global factors behind this trend there are also specific national and local issues that remain less visible. Which factors play a key role in the decline of small-scale farming? What are the implications of this trend for the rural mountain landscape? This study analyses farmland at the local level, recent CAP developments, and farmer responses through in-depth questionnaires. Findings show that small-scale mountain farming area is reduced, grazing is often replaced by mowing, and parcels are absorbed by larger farms. CAP’s administrative burdens and weak social capital are key barriers. Farmers managing up to 30 ha would benefit more from systematic support rather than small additional subsidies.

Landscape provides many services for human wellbeing through its mosaic of ecosystems. Although different landscape spatial structures limit some access to these services for local residents, their demand for landscape benefits creates a crucial component in landscape planning. Herein, we evaluate the ecosystem service supply from landscape structures in four different areas of Slovakia and we identify the public preferences for these services. This evaluation was assisted by expert-based ecosystem services (ES) matrix assessment and feedback from experts and key local stakeholders. The associated land cover assessment revealed that although forests are the most important for ES delivery, followed by extensive agricultural mosaics, cultural services have the highest average supply value. In contrast, the experts and local stakeholders considered that provisioning services were the most important of all ES groups because of products available from arable land. The overall public awareness of benefits provided by nature proved relatively high, and this is a good sign for the development of multi-functional landscapes. The comparison of study sites revealed that even stakeholders living in intensively used land, with its overall low ES supply, assessed ES as very important in general. The general public could therefore be included in environmental planning to promote a more multi-functional landscape. In addition, the analysis herein will communicate gained insights to the local planners and decision-makers and confirm the importance of this ES participatory approach using top-down methodology. This may require the following measures in Slovakia: establishing an interdisciplinary group of experts for regular assessment of strategic landscape planning documents and regulatory instruments, developing key directives which establish well-balanced participatory procedures, improving open local government, and supporting down-scaled implementation of integrated landscape planning in cooperation with local action groups.

The traditional agricultural landscape (TAL) in Slovakia comprises mosaics of small-scale arable fields and permanent agricultural cultivations with balks (mounds, heaps, or terraces). Traditional farming management has been significantly influenced by agricultural collectivization, by the change from centrally planned to market economy after 1989, and the 2004 Slovakia accession to the EU. Detailed results of a questionnaire survey inspired the main objective of this paper; analysis and comparison of local residents’ attitudes to the TAL, its management and the various socioecological factors in three different TAL study areas. Identified differences and commonalities between the opinions of different groups of respondents on TAL management contribute to fine-tuning recent agricultural and rural policies and local management plans. Rural identity expressed in the knowledge and perception of local land users is crucial in TAL maintenance and sustainable rural development.

Faced with the disappearance and ongoing abandonment of traditional agricultural landscapes (TAL) in Europe, our primary aim is to provide scientific evidence of the importance of TAL in terms of biodiversity, cultural and social values, and to stimulate action for their preservation in the Slovakian context. Surveys at both the national and local levels have acknowledged that TAL are generally associated with a relatively high species richness of plants and animals, including the presence of rare and threatened species. They have a high cultural-historical value due to the preserved small-scale structure and the presence of typical agrarian landforms and small architectural elements. A questionnaire survey showed that a major constraint for local inhabitants in maintaining TAL arises from insufficient governmental support. We argue that governmental financial instruments should recognise the concept of TAL in the context of measures concerning High Nature Value farmland.

This paper provides a detailed analysis of environment policy implementation in national, regional and local landscape planning in Slovakia. The policy and strategic documents are assessed from the perspective of the ecosystem services (ES) concept which integrates environmental and economic objectives of the landscape planning. This paper builds on three main empirical elements: (1) review of key national policies in respect to landscape planning, (2) review of key local and regional planning, strategic and assessment documents, (3) stakeholder interviews and focus groups. Our results indicate that spatial planning and assessment processes in Slovakia based on legislation and regulations for individual sectors are mainly contradictory in some cases, rather than encompassing integrated (landscape) planning procedures. The ES concept has not been considered in any planning tools across scales. These results were found to be similar with respective EU policies, in which the limited uptake of the ES concept was also observed. Finally, the paper presents recommendations which can enhance spatial planning processes in Slovakia; using an ES-inspired integrated framework for landscape assessment and decision-making. Such improvement of planning and decision-making procedures can be exploited in real-world solutions, and provide long-term benefits for human well-being while still retaining links to ecosystem functions and processes.