BAB 044/20: The Challenge of Land Abandonment after 2020 and Options for Mitigating Measures

Initial situation

The problem of abandonment of agricultural land is a central challenge for many European regions in view of the efforts to achieve sustainable development. Within the framework of the work of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, the European Parliament has invited tenders for a study on this topic and selected the joint offer of ÖIR and BAB for implementation. The study is to present an overview of the European situation within the next few months and to put forward alternative courses of action for dealing with the problem.

Objective

The loss of agricultural land and the abandonment of cultivation are particularly severe in disadvantaged and especially in mountainous areas. An analysis of the long-term developments and relevant influencing factors seems to be urgent as a basis for adapted policy programs. Through the discussion of the study, the European Parliament intends to contribute to ensuring the positive impact of farming for the preservation of regional agriculture, settlement and ecological development, and to make the interrelationships of large-scale and small-scale impact factors more visible, and to stimulate a comprehensive evaluation of the positive and negative aspects of the abandonment of agricultural land.

Status of the project and work in 2021

The project was selected for implementation by the European Parliament at the end of June and is being carried out within the framework of the work of the Committee for Agriculture and Rural Development. In 2020, the following activities have been carried out:

• Presentation of the theoretical concept of management abandonment, the different categories of land use change, and the multiple causes and effects of management abandonment (literature review).
• Regionalized data analysis of the management task and the threat potential for the next years
• Implementation of four European case studies Development of scenarios under different external influences
• Policy recommendations and implementation proposals

The final report of the study was published at the end of 2020 and is available for download on the website of the European Parliament: https://bit.ly/39ElcFJ

Timeline

Start of the project: July 2020
End of the project: March 2021