The article presents the Lithuanian forest land change in the period of more than a hundred years. The causes leading to forest land use change are analysed in the article. The beginning of forestry in Lithuania can be traced back to Sigismund Augustus times starting from 1557, when Wallach reform was launched. However, over time forest land and its use evolved for a variety of political, social and economic factors. In 1795 the state-owned forests in Lithuania amounted to 35% of the total area of forests; other forests were owned by landlords, churches and kulak farms. Later forests were cut down quite rapidly, many of them burned down, but reforestation work was insignificant. The smallest forest coverage during the analysed period was in 1945, just 16.5%. Forests were thinned out, wastelands and waterlogged areas dominated. Later, albeit with different variations, the forest coverage of Lithuania increased and today forest area accounts for more than 34% of the total area of the country, the majority of which are private forests. More detailed characteristics of forest land use and user trends as well as their causes are presented in the article. It also looks at the possible prospects.

Land as a production factor occupies a special position in the economic activities of the urban population. Land resources in big cities are not only territorial basis for placing industrial and production structures, but also a space for urban life in general. However, to assess the effectiveness of urban land use, primarily the ecological and economic potential of the use of the urban land resources should be determined aimed at sustainable development of urban agglomerations (Volodchenkov, 2010). The rapid pace of development of large cities in the world and an increase of their impact on the environment and society is accompanied by the set of economic, ecological and social problems which significantly influence the development of settlements in general (Stolʹberh, 2000; Onyshchuk, 2001). However, the process of urbanization as a result of rapid scientific and technological revolution requires large areas for deployment of large scale production facilities and urban settlements in the conditions of natural resource management (Kontorovich, Rivkin, 1986).

The article shows results of compiling recommendation land use maps for land use and land resources management of the university experimental farm “Velykosnitynske”. Large-scale GIS mapping of experimental farms allows to improve land use and decision making, prepare recommendations to solve land management issues, planning of technology processes and efficient crop growing technology. Compiled recommendation maps are aimed to assist in rational land use planning and sustainable development of the territory.

In the Western region of Ukraine, melioration is both of economic and social importance. The area of reclaimed lands constitutes 2.2 million ha or 24 % of the total agricultural lands in the region. Thus, melioration is of great importance for social-economic development of agro-industrial complex of the territory. Under conditions of the land reform in Ukraine, reclaimed lands were subjected to sharing and privatization causing a negative impact on efficiency of its utilization and technical conditions of the reclaimed land infrastructure. The aim of the research is to analyze conditions and suggest practical recommendations as to rise of productivity of reclaimed lands, peculiarities of land organization on privatized reclaimed areas, consolidation of shared lands within the boundaries of acting drainage systems. Timeliness of the research is connected with the issues of improvement of agricultural utilization and protection of drained lands of the region. The authors used economic-statistical, monographic and logistic methods in the research. The example of Lviv region was used to analyse conditions and problems of reclaimed lands of western regions of Ukraine under conditions of land relations’ transformation. It is mentioned that only 70 % of drained areas feature satisfactory water-air regime of soil for cultivation of agricultural crops. Prospects of an increase of their utilization efficiency are connected with reconstruction of the systems consolidating common technological melioration complexes, support of both-side regulation of soil humidity.

The search of effective methods of agricultural land protection from soil erosion under conditions of land relations’ reform in Ukraine is a complex ecological and economic issue requiring a system approach to its solution, adequate organizational and economic support and scientific argumentation. The topicality of the research is based on the importance of the problem of arable land protection from soil erosion, and its solution is related to ecologically safe land utilization keeping to the principles of balanced development of land management. The aim of the research is to develop scientific basis for the recommendations how to improve the system of erosion-safe agricultural land management under conditions of reforming land relations in Ukraine. The article presents scientific fundamentals of organization of erosion-safe land management in the context of the balanced development of nature management, analyses conditions of utilization and protection of land in erosion-unsafe landscapes; develop scientifically grounded recommendations as to improvement of a system of erosion-safe agricultural land management at a local level. In the process of the investigation a combination of methods were used: monographic, induction and deduction methods, system analysis, cartographic, experimental projecting. A contour organization of the territory is recommended to apply to protect arable land from soil erosion. Reimbursement of money payments and tax privileges can motivate landowners and land users to introduce anti-erosion measures. It is required to consider use value and non-use value of land resources in the process of their estimation for land payments.

Land degradation is a topical issue not only in Latvia, but also in Europe. Even the real estate additional tax rate of 1.5% does not prevent agricultural land from overgrowing, and there is no other legal mechanism to control it. One of the mechanisms of prevention of land degradation process is reconstruction of drainage systems, change of worthless agricultural land (less than 25 points) to forest land or improvement and return of agricultural land (more than 25 points) to economic production. Although such actions require financial resources, there may be a variety of financial support programs, for example, the decrease of the real property tax rate (in case of afforestation).

Land management and improvement of computer technologies in land use are one of the most important tasks of the state; their effective implementation is closely linked to the widespread implementation of modern achievements of information technology. The achievement of the maximum transparency of the processes is vital in the field of geo-information and spatial data resources during increasing the reliability and manageability of the infrastructure.

From the old times Lithuanian manors were the main centres of diplomacy, administration and culture. The applied land reforms, war and post-war periods and changing regimes altered the structures of the manors; their owners and users changed as well. The number of homesteads of manors and their territory highly decreased. During various periods of time more than 150 manors were present in the current territory of Panevėžys district municipality. The aim of the research is to analyse the land use of the least researched homesteads of former manors in 1923 and 2016. Six homesteads of former manors that are located in Panevėžys district have been analysed. The research has revealed that a great amount of small land lots aggravates the farming conditions and does not allow the rational land use. Certainly, this problem is solved partially by renting or selling the land to the owners of the adjacent land lots. Land consolidation would help to pass beneficial decisions for the land use. In the recent years, due to the initiatives of state institutions and individual people a fair part of homesteads of manors are being rebuilt and adjusted to the use of society.

The main peculiarities of land relations abroad are highlighted in the article. Basic principles of foreign experience of land use regarding market circulation of land, concentration of major land resources by right of ownership as well as the process and ways of reformation of land relations are generalized and systematized. Some peculiarities of lease relations, collection of rents and restrictions on title to land for foreigners are analysed. Some positive aspects are distinguished in order to use them in Ukraine. Some ways of improvement of land legislation in Ukraine are suggested taken into account foreign experience.

Loss of the territory biological diversity is one of the most serious challenges for sustainable development of Ukraine. Solution of that problem is the essential constituent of the national ecological policy, which is focused on introduction of the ecosystem approach in all spheres of social and economic development, including protection of biological diversity. The goal of the article is to study some aspects of protection of the biological diversity of rural areas by means of ecosystem renaturalization by transforming degraded and marginal arable lands into forests, grassland and wetlands. The research proposes an organizational mechanism of increase and expansion of the territories with natural lands, which includes planning of land use, landscape and ecological zoning, territorial organization, evaluation of ecosystem benefits, land users’ motivation. The researchers stress on the necessity to create ecological networks and agroforestry. Such structural organization of rural area supports a balanced combination of the “human-land-ecosystem” system due to protecting the main ecosystem functions, i.e., provision of regulating and habitat services. While determining the directions of use of the land plots with degraded and marginal arable lands, the obligatory condition is to justify the benefits from those ecosystem services. To regulate the environmental land relations, it is recommended to introduce conservation easement.