POST SOCIALIST LAND USE CHANGES IN THE DANUBE REGION

Abstract

After the Romanian Revolution, the national economy experienced a transition from a centralized socialist to a free market-based system. Agriculture was one of the first economic branches significantly influenced by this process. The main objective of this paper is to analyze changes in the land use – land use categories, type of landownership and type of farming - in Danube Region after 1989. The Danube region is considered, in this paper, an area consisted of eleven counties strongly influenced by the Danube River. The conclusion is that the post socialist period featured both positive and negative consequences on land use. The positive results referred to expansion of private property over agricultural and forestry lands, setting up new family farms, etc. The changes that had negative effects were mainly excessive fragmentation of the agricultural land and, the emergence of a huge number of semi and subsistence farms.