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Many small-scale agricultural plots not suitable to modern industrial and market-
oriented agriculture were abandoned during the last decades. In some regions,
especially in mountains and highlands or in regions of South and North Europe, the
process of extensification can be dominant for the whole landscape. In most parts of
Europe, however, a total marginalisation is the exception. Marginalisation usually
concerns only smaller parts of the land and it can be regarded as a compensation for
intensively used arable lands. Processes are mostly a mixture of both intensification
and marginalisation (Jongman & Bunce, 2000).
The general trend of recent rural landscape changes is one of polarisation
between more intensively and more extensively used land. Equally, intensifica-
tion and marginalisation increase the polarisation rate of landscapes (Mander &
Jongman, 2000). This polarisation means that the current changes are not restricted
to the main production areas but all landscapes are affected (Antrop, 2008). In many
cases intensification of land use in one area causes marginalisation in other areas
(Mander & Jongman, 2000). This development was typical for the Czech country-
side during the socialist collective farming period and continued after 1990 under
new political and socio-economic conditions (Lipský, 1995, 2005).
2.6 Abandoned Lands and New Wilderness in European
Cultural Landscapes
2.6.1 The Origin of the New Wilderness and its Causes
The area of arable as well as total agricultural land had been permanently decreasing
during the whole second half of the Twentieth century in our landscape. This devel-
opment has also been confirmed by statistical data on land use (Bicík & Kupková,
2005; European Environment Agency, 2006), however the real land use and land
cover is usually a little different. Maintenance of the rural landscape becomes
impossible in some parts whether for technological or economic reasons. Even
during the period of socialist agriculture, when a strict law concerning protection
and use of agricultural lands was applied and economic aspects were not determi-
nant, some plots and localities not suitable for large-scale agriculture and heavy
mechanisation remained as fallow lands. Most abandoned lands were still officially
recorded as agricultural land in statistical statements. The area of abandoned lands
has been increasing slowly but no official statistics exist, only rough estimates of
circa 350.000-400.000 ha in the country. That is approximately 5% of the area of
the Czech Republic. Significant regional differences occur among mountains, high-
lands and fertile lowlands (Lipský, 2005). But it is essential to say that none of
the catastrophic forecasts estimating that about half of the area of agricultural land
would be left abandoned in the country after 1990 have been fulfilled.
Biotic processes of natural succession and natural stabilisation began on aban-
doned agricultural lands. Self-seeding trees, shrubs and other seminatural commu-
nities began to grow and expand in these localities. They became local centres of
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