Common lands as a system of joint management to contribute to community resilience? Case from Slovakia

Abstract

The traditional form of land management in Slovakia was represented by common lands and regulated by the legal form of urbariates or composite sorates, later reintroduced in the form of land associations. The aim of the article is to evaluate the transformation processes of the common lands and identify its contribution to community resilience against land conflicts by interviews realized among selected land associations. The results of the research point to the lack of motivation of owners of land associations to efficiently and sustainably use common land, which mostly becomes objects of rent with the view of quick profit. At the conclusion, we propose a set of measures that we recommend the state to apply in order to unify and streamline the activities of land associations in Slovakia.

Keywords

• common lands
• collective actions
• land associations
• landscape resilience
• slovakia