AGRICULTURAL LAND USE AND LAND LOSSES IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA IN THE PERIOD 1961-2018
In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) there are no available data on permanent losses of agricultural land and it is evident that all the research and professional and scientific literature still uses the information of annual land loss in the amount of 3,000 ha which, according to the available references, has been in use since 1977 (Resulović, 1977-2010). The subject of this scientific research is to investigate changes in the use of agricultural land in BiH, sectoral policies and factors affecting these changes as well as the quality of official data on land and land use change. Analyzed as part of this research were three sets of data: statistical data (1961-1991), cadastral records (1973-1991) and CORINE data on land cover changes (2000-2018). Researches have shown that trends in changes in total agricultural land by all categories of use were not linear and were considerably affected by the socioeconomic development and sectoral policies. This study has shown that total agricultural land, according to statistical records from 1961-1991, was reduced by 101,222 ha (3,374 ha/yr). Within the category of arable land, the biggest permanent losses were recorded in cropland and gardens, amounting to 207,823 ha or 6,927 ha/yr, while in some other categories within the arable land an increase was recorded. According to cadastral records for the period 1973-1991, the total decrease of agricultural land amounts to 58,186 ha (3,232 ha/yr). According to CORINE data, the reduction of agricultural land in the period 20002018 is 14,152 ha or 786 ha/yr.