Land use - Drivers and pressures (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)

The main driving forces that generate pressures on land use are economic sectors like agriculture, transport, as well as the high level of urbanisation. The pressure level of the specific driving forces varies in different parts of the country.

The pressures on the agriculture area can be categorised as:

• land abandonment, mainly caused by changes in land ownership. Land managed by co-operatives and enterprises returned to private owners, only a small number of whom were interested in agriculture;
• low level or absence of support and subsidies for agriculture. As a result, some agricultural enterprises collapsed and  new ones were not established;
• establishment of new reservoirs such as the Kozjak artificial lake of approximately13 km2 – part of the country’s strategy based on the Vardar Valley Project.

Urban spread of housing and commercial sites has occurred around larger cities, mainly the capitol Skopje and cities in the west of the country.

A small part of land take is for transport development, mostly linked to the construction of highways.