AFFORESTATION IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME AND ITS ROLE IN CHANGING LAND USE STRUCTURE

Abstract

The paper deals with EU financial support mechanisms for agricultural holdings (in terms of spatial differentiation) and includes the issues related to a range of activities within the Rural Development Plan/Programme [Polish: PROW] which were conducted between 2002 and 2004 (Rural Development Plan) and between 2007 and 2010 (Rural Development Programme 2007–2013) and with regard to the organisation and technological development of agriculture, i.e. afforestation. The research demonstrated serious territorial differences in the amount and structure of European funds acquired by agricultural holdings in poviats located in the Warmińsko-Mazurskie voivodeship. Two indices were used in the study: poviat activity (comparison of the number of applications submitted) and absorption of funds in agricultural holdings (comparison of the number of payments made) which were considered together as a composite index of EU fund utilisation, whereby the funds acquired in the periods of 2004–2006 and 2007–2010 were treated separately. A holistic analysis was also carried out and it included the entirety of European Programme Measures, with special attention paid to the differences between spatial patterns observed between 2004 and 2010 per 1 ha of forest. Additionally, a co-relation between poviat activity, payments made and forest land area was analysed. The study included also the relationship between the absorption index and the forest land area. It has been shown that the Common Agricultural Policy [Polish: WPR] instruments dedicated for pro-ecological agricultural activities in poviats of the Warmińsko-Mazurskie voivodship – mostly with regard to afforestation – contribute to spatial changes in the land use structure.

Keywords: Rural Development Programme [PROW], afforestation, Common Agricultural Policy [WPR], Polish agriculture development.

Article DOI: http://doi.org/10.15544/RD.2015.048