<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD JATS (Z39.96) Journal Publishing DTD v1.0 20120330//EN" "JATS-journalpublishing1.dtd">
<article xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" article-type="article">
  <front>
    <journal-meta>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">RFDS</journal-id>
      <journal-title-group>
        <journal-title>Regional Formation and Development Studies</journal-title>
      </journal-title-group>
      <issn pub-type="epub">2029-9370</issn>
      <issn pub-type="ppub">2029-9370</issn>
      <publisher>
        <publisher-name>KU</publisher-name>
      </publisher>
    </journal-meta>
    <article-meta>
      <article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">1_BUCIENE</article-id>
      <article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.15181/rfds.v6i1.2324</article-id>
      <article-categories>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="heading">
          <subject>Article</subject>
        </subj-group>
      </article-categories>
      <title-group>
        <article-title>The Shrinking Rate of Utilised Agricultural Land and its Components in the Baltic Sea Region Countries</article-title>
      </title-group>
      <contrib-group>
        <contrib contrib-type="Author">
          <name>
            <surname>Bučienė</surname>
            <given-names>Angelija</given-names>
          </name>
          <email xlink:href="mailto:angelija.buciene@ku.lt">angelija.buciene@ku.lt</email>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_RFDS_aff_000"/>
        </contrib>
        <aff id="j_RFDS_aff_000">Klaipėda University</aff>
      </contrib-group>
      <volume>6</volume>
      <issue>1</issue>
      <fpage>6</fpage>
      <lpage>14</lpage>
      <permissions>
        <ali:free_to_read xmlns:ali="http://www.niso.org/schemas/ali/1.0/"/>
      </permissions>
      <abstract>
        <p>The temporal and spatial changes of land use are important while studying the rural landscapes on both the regional-geographical and environmental scales. In the Baltic Sea region with nine countries (including Russian Federation, represented by Kaliningrad oblast, the utilised agricultural land (UAL) makes about 34 % of total region area on the average. The current research revealed the trends of different shrinking rate of UAL in nine studied countries from 1993 to 2008: it varied within the range between 3 % in Denmark and 43 % in Estonia. Research focus was given to the changes in ratio between arable land and area under meadows and pastures: it increased from 6.5 to 10.9 during 15 years period (1993–2008) on the average, that shows the increase in land use and farming intensity even the UAL area was shrunk.</p>
      </abstract>
      <kwd-group>
        <label>Keywords</label>
        <kwd>utilised agricultural land</kwd>
        <kwd>arable land, meadows and pastures</kwd>
        <kwd>shrinking rate</kwd>
      </kwd-group>
      <kwd-group kwd-group-type="JEL CODES">
        <label>JEL CODES</label>
        <kwd>Q16</kwd>
        <kwd>Q15</kwd>
      </kwd-group>
    </article-meta>
  </front>
</article>
