Conservation of natural ecosystems by land consolidation in the rural landscape | Ohranjanje naravnih ekosistemov pri zložbi zemljišč v kmetijski krajini

English.  Protecting the environment better livelihoods in rural communities have become increasingly important elements in land consolidation. The main objective of land consolidation is to improve the land holdings of farmers by concentrating their farms in as few plots as possible, and to support the farms with roads and infrastructure when needed. Experiences from the Western European countries and also from Slovenia show that land consolidation, which solely focuses on increase in productivity without taking into consideration the ecological aspects easily lead to negative effects. The fragmentation of natural ecosystems resulting from inappropriate land consolidation has been recognised as one of the major causes of the decline of biodiversity, the others being erosion, and the lowering of water table. In the areas of intensive agricultural production ecological structures, such as hedges, small areas of bushes, trees and water holes should be preserved. Because the efficiency of land utilisation increases after the implementation of land consolidation, the small land areas could be justified to ecological land use.

Slovenian.  Sonaravno urejanje kmetijskih zemljišč ob upoštevanju ekoloških meril predstavlja danes pomembno smernico pri izvajanju komasacij kmetijskih zemljišč. Osnovni namen komasacije kmetijskih zemljišč je izboljšanje posestne in zemljiške strukture in s tem posredno povečanje kmetijske pridelave, hkrati pa se nanaša na urejanje potrebnih dostopnih poti in druge infrastrukture v kmetijski krajini. Komasacije kmetijskih zemljišč v nekaterih zahodnoevropskih državah in tudi v Sloveniji, ki so bile osredotočene le na povečanje kmetijske proizvodnje, zanemarjeni pa so bili ekološki vidiki, so mnogokrat prinesle več škode kot koristi. Neprimeren pristop h komasacijam kmetijskih zemljišč in s tem povezano drobljenje in krčenje naravnih ekosistemov so lahko vzrok za povečanje občutljivosti zemljišč na erozijo rodovitnih tal, na sušna obdobja in za izginevanje številnih rastlinskih in živalskih vrst v kmetijski krajini. Na območjih z intenzivno kmetijsko pridelavo bi se morali ohranjati ekološki elementi, kot so obmejki, grmičevje, mlake ipd. S komasacijami kmetijskih zemljišč se uniči veliko takih ekoloških elementov, ki bi jih morali vsaj delno ohraniti, del pa nadomestiti z novimi ekološkimi površinami.