Traditional Agricultural Landscapes in Uskopaljska Valley (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
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Open Geosciences 2020; 12: 1573–1588 Transformation of Traditional Cultural Landscapes - Koper 2019 Haris Gekić* and Aida Bidžan-Gekić Traditional agricultural landscapes in Uskopaljska valley (Bosnia and Herzegovina) https://doi.org/10.1515/geo-2020-0024 interactions with climate, processes in the ecosystem, received December 31, 2019; accepted November 10, 2020 biogeochemical cycles, biodiversity, and human acti- [ ] ffi Abstract: This article discusses changing trends in agri- vities 2 .Landcoverandlandusee ciency play an [ ] cultural land use in Uskopaljska valley. Quite a large important role in global change 3 .Knowledgeofthe number of agricultural land exploitation orientations spatial and temporal characteristics of such processes is indicate that the geographical benefits for the develop- of great socioeconomic and environmental importance [ ] ment of certain types of agricultural production are very 4,5 . Global change studies require accurate, relevant, different. Detailed analysis of the exploitation orien- and consistent information on land cover and its ff tations of land use leads to the opinion that they are dynamics to advance our understanding of how di erent determined mainly by social movements. The depopu- elements of the global system currently operate, how they - lation areas are numerous in the periphery of Uskopaljska interact, and how to best reduce uncertainty in fore [ ] valley, resulting in abandonment of agricultural land and casting changes 6 . š [ ] “ ” an increase in unused areas. Large extensive production Vri er 7 in his work The size of farms in Slovenia areas were abandoned after 1991, leaving uncultivated gives an account of the role of the size of the property and the ć- ploughlands and grass cover to be used occasionally by ownership structure in agricultural production. Vujatovi ć ć [ ] herders. In 2018, there were only 7.4 acres of ploughlands, Zaki and Tomi 8 argue that the fragmentation of farms I–IV class quality, per person that were mainly being culti- can be overcome by land division. The importance of parcel š [ ] vated,whichwasnotenoughtoensuresufficient food pro- size and parcelization was also discussed by Vri er 9,10 ć ć ć [ ] č ć ć [ ] duction. According to the analysis of available data and and Stepi and Ja imovi 11 and Crkven i and Mali 12 . [ ] “ ” based on the practices, and among others a survey among Chopra 13 in his book Agricultural Geography the farmers, the general perception of basic conditions and discusses the problems of overpopulation in agricultural main problems of agricultural land use and agricultural areas of India and the problems of depopulation in them. [ ] “ ” development is revealed. Yusuf et al. 14 in Methods of Demographic Analysis explain the most important methods of population analysis, Keywords: land use, depopulation, agricultural develop- with particular attention to concentration levels and ment, perception, agricultural geography deployment, similar to Kulcsar and Curtis [15] in the rural demography handbook. Božović and Đurašković [16] in their paper emphasize the importance of the 1 Introduction human factor in agricultural production, whether it is the total population, the active population, or the quali- Agricultural landscapes are dynamic, with a wealth of fied workforce. Many of Mediterranean mountain regions factors influencing the direction and degree of change in Europe present very similar features: a mid-mountain [1]. Land cover and changes in land use have been recog- environment location, an inability to offer tourist attrac- nized as major drivers of global change through their tions of any real weight, and insufficient agricultural or forestry potential that might serve as an economic engine in a globalized and liberalized economy [17]. * Corresponding author: Haris Gekić, Department of Geography, Land abandonment particularly affects extensive agri- University of Sarajevo, Zmaja od Bosne 33-35, Sarajevo, 71000, cultural areas, which often exhibit high levels of agricul- - Bosnia and Herzegovina, e mail: [email protected], tural biodiversity [18]. Generally speaking, rural abandon- tel: +387 33 723 742 Aida Bidžan-Gekić: Department of Geography, University of ment implies the conversion of mixed crops and grazing Sarajevo, Zmaja od Bosne 33-35, Sarajevo, 71000, Bosnia and land to a limited number of monocultures and the expan- Herzegovina, e-mail: [email protected] sion of homogeneous forest areas [19]. Abandonment in Open Access. © 2020 Haris Gekić and Aida Bidžan-Gekić, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 1574 Haris Gekić and Aida Bidžan-Gekić Slovakia predominantly occurs on areas with steep slopes 2 Methodology (driven by increased use of heavy machinery that is not ) ( adapted for steep slopes and less fertile soils driven by 2.1 Study area decreased profitability of agriculture on less productive areas)[20]. The relative importance of the drivers that influence Analysis and evaluation of geoposition represent an landowners’ decision-making varies considerably between important factor for the understanding of genesis, develop- landscape types in Europe and thus also the opportunities ment, and function of any kind of area. The geographical for landowners to respond to incentives and other policy position of the Uskopaljska valley has the following instruments [21]. Natural/spatial drivers were described as characteristics: it is situated in the Northern Hemisphere, being more influential on land abandonment than on in the field with geographic coordinates 43°51′ and 44°15′ other change processes. Analysis showed that cases North latitude, and between 17°16′ and 17°51′ East longi- cluster in groups of a small number of shared characte- tude. According to data acquired from the meteorological ristics, with land abandonment/extensification, agricultural station of Bugojno, this area belongs to pre-mountain expansion/intensification, and technological drivers being moderate continental climate type or, according to Köppen most relevant for separating clusters [22].Sklenickaetal.’s Climate Classification, this municipality’sregionisdomi- study confirmed that differences in farmland proportion and nated by Cfb climate (moderate warm and wet climate in the proportion of permanent elements were similarly with warm summer), while in the mountain areas especially affected by environmental conditions in the two states, in the east, northeast, and west, is presented Cfc climate as Czechia and Austria, regardless of their political and well (moderate warm and wet climate with fresh summer). socioeconomic development [23]. On the high mountain, system of Vranica Dfb and ET climate The systematic review of case studies on agricultural are present. The main hydrographic skeleton of the land use change in Europe revealed intensification and UskopaljskavalleyareaispresentedwiththeVrbas disintensification of agricultural land manifested itself as River and its tributaries. The entire area of the region expansion or contraction, changes in landscape elements, can be divided into three characteristic hypsometric changes in land management intensity, changes in agri- zones important for agricultural production: the hilly cultural land use activity, and specialization or diversifi- zone with the domination of alluvial plains 420–600 m cation. Demographic, economic, technological, institutional, above sea level, covers approximately 7.35% of the and sociocultural drivers are all related to the observed observed area; the hilly zone with the dominance of changes, in combination with location factors and farm depression hills covers altitudes from 601 to 750 m and farmer characteristics [24]. above sea level (15.6% of the total observed area);the According to Hietala-Koivu [25], the intensification of mountain zone extends at altitudes above 750 m and agriculture means that the landscape of Ylane, Finland, occupies about 77% of the observed area [27]. has become more homogeneous, probably because of the Political-geographically, the Uskopaljska valley is decreasing number of open parcel ditches. situated in the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the entity Masný and Zaušková study results [26] prove the dis- of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and within appearance of traditional agricultural forms and also the it, in the Central Bosnian Canton (Figure 1). Physiog- eminent changes of landscape structure in the period of nomically, it belongs to the Mountain-Valley macro- collectivization. At the same time, their findings presented region and the Upper Vrbas-Pliva mesoregion of Bosnia underline the seriousness of the phenomenon of agri- and Herzegovina. In Uskopaljska valley, there are three cultural land abandonment in the territory of Slovakia. administrative municipalities: Bugojno (31,470 popu- The aim of this paper is to examine main changes lation),DonjiVakuf(14,739 population),andGornji in traditional agricultural areas of Uskopaljska valley, Vakuf-Uskoplje (22,304 population). By roads, Uskopaljska Bosnia and Herzegovina. We explored changing trends valley is almost equally away from the cities of Banja Luka, in agricultural land use, orientations of land use, Sarajevo, Mostar, and Split (around 140 km). The total depopulation areas with related abandonment of agri- length of the border of Uskopaljska valley towards the cultural land, the general perception of basic condi- neighboring municipalities is 259 km, and in those borders, tions, and main problems of agricultural