Agricultural abandonment and socio economics stakes

Abstract

Fallow land and forest extensions are considered as "non-spaces" or "non-beings" of the socio-economic reality. There are more or less forceful processes resulting in the abandoning of agricultural land, landowners’ strategies often difficult to identify and various dynamic processes from the ecological viewpoint and from that of occupying and using land.The first part of this analysis shows the influences of the economic policies on what we could call "the socio-economic dynamics of fallow lands and forest extensions". The second part deals with the manner in which farmersmake their choices in terms of the land which they own and in what way the fallow land and the forest extensionare useful to them within the framework of the changes of the operating systems. Finally, these questions are dealt with at the level of the built-up territory, since any development of a plot involves a larger space and especially other forces besides the farmers and landowners. The consequences are to be measured at different levels, plots, farms, local territory, preference of the citizens and society for the use and management of natural resources and the environment. In particular, how is it possible to ensure the permanent control of these spaces and the necessary study of their place within contexts, which themselves evolve in the course of time.