Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 7
Usage of the Mountain Areas in the Republic
of Macedonia
Mirjanka Madzevic and Biljana Apostolovska Toshevska
Abstract
According to the geomorphologic structure of the relief in the Republic
of Macedonia mountain areas (along with the frontiers of displaced villages) cover
around 47.6% of the total area. Almost 25% of the total number of village settle-
ments in the country is on this territory (Panov, 1993; Panov M., 1998; Stojmilov,
2005), but only 9.5% of the total village population recorded in 2002 in the Republic
of Macedonia lives in it. In the past 50 years, there has been rapid decline of the
population in mountain areas. As a result, in 2002, 47 village settlements in the
mountains had been displaced, and the population density was barely 10 people per
km
2
. In favor of this is the fact that in 2002 there had been 1.2 ha arable land per
person which is double in comparison with 1961. Especially, negative usage of farm-
lands happened in the villages of up to 300 people, with 5.2 ha per person. These
villages have mostly single and aged households. At the same time, although moun-
tainous areas have conditions to develop other activities, such as mining, various
types of tourism, they are not adequately used.
Keywords
Mountains areas
·
Population
·
Arable land
·
Usage
·
Resources
7.1 Introduction
No matter how paradoxical it sounds, there is a truth in the claim that mountain areas
are so rich and yet so poor. This claim comes from the fact that mountain tracts have
abundance of diverse natural resources of regional and state significance, but these
are not used completely.
In order to stress the degree of inadequate usage of mountain areas as well as
potential possibilities for that, several existing and planned activities which con-
tribute or will contribute for more adequate usage of the areas will be distinguished
in the following chapter. In the whole chapter the main landmark for usage is the
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