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).

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.

The article discusses the current state of forest land, the history of formation of large tracts of forest in the Samara region and analyses some of the results of implementation of target programs to improve the forest cover in the region under the Kyoto Protocol. This program was designed for the period from 2006 to 2015, but in 2009 was discontinued. However, large segment of assets was allocated and a number of works was carried out. Currently the objectives of the programme to increase the forest cover in the territory of Samara region through the creation of tracts of forest are not achieved. Tree and shrub plantations play an important role in reducing the activity of processes of erosion, prevent degradation and desertification. Therefore, the problem of increasing forest cover, especially in the steppe zone of the region, to the level of the preindustrial era remains relevant and requires science-based measures for their solution.