The main purpose of this paper is to review the literature and national documents, and define the meaning and roles of various types of good in the rural cultural landscape. We identified four main categories: private good, toll good, common good, and public good. The scope, uses, and benefits of goods in the cultural landscape change over time due to, inter alia, socio-political processes and formal (non)recognition at the institutional level. Further, we discuss how public good and common good benefit the community, and the necessity of sound management and conservation of common good in the form of common property. In the context of public good, supporting, regulating, and cultural ecosystem services are becoming increasingly important. They are non-subtractable, but they are inextricably linked to private land. As there are many points of conflict in the use of common and public goods, their protection should be provided in the relevant legislation.
COBISS.SI-ID: 39247149
Landscape diversity consisted of heterogeneous landscape elements is largely dependent on human activities such as traditional practices and knowledge related to land use which could be recognized as a contribution to cultural diversity. Losing traditional practices may result in impoverishing of landscape and biological diversity. We present cases illustrating connections between certain landscape elements and traditional practices typical for the cultural landscape of Ljubljansko barje (Ljubljana Marshes) in Slovenia. The study was carried out on the selected case study sites using study visits and interviews with locals. The aim of identifying these connections was to foster synergies between management of cultural landscape, traditional practices and modern way of living. However, against expectations, the study revealed that in the Ljubljansko barje area not many such practices and knowledge remain. The most useful practices that help to sustain extensive meadows and tall-herb communities are horse breeding and late mowing, and the local knowledge concerning agricultural and building land safe against floods. Moreover, we found important the fact that the first ‘victims’ of modern farming are particularly those landscape elements that are the result of a considerably lower level of technological development.
COBISS.SI-ID: 39606061
The monograph introduces research findings about the structure and functions of the Ljubljana Moor (Ljubljansko barje) cultural landscape. This landscape is composed of a plain with isolated hills (inselbergs) and hills on the outskirts. Floods are still frequent. Due to its exceptional biodiversity, in 2008 the area was proclaimed a landscape park. In the study we identified 28 landscape elements in 3 pilot sites – depending on the geological substratum, water, and land use – which contribute to landscape diversity. Payments to farmers have a significant impact on land use which influences greatly land cultivation and sustainable breeding, while these have a considerably lower influence on the preservation of semi natural landscape elements. We discovered that in terms of sustainability the key tendency is to strive to such a landscape diversity that ensures optimum landscape functioning and various ecosystem services.The analysis of landscape changes over 4 study periods showed that, initially, agriculture, settlement, and water management were the main drivers; however, over recent decades the importance of nature protection and tourism has increased. In today’s landscape there are two conflicting trends: intensification and land abandonment . Based on the aforementioned findings, we designed 27 measures for the protection and sustainable managment of the Ljubljana moor cultural landscape.
COBISS.SI-ID: 284856832
This papers aims to study and clearly define the terms public good, common-pool resources, and the commons. Using path dependency analysis, interviews, and workshops among the general public and experts, we highlight the perception of public good and the commons in Slovenia as a transitional society. The analysis has revealed that the understanding of these terms among the general public is still strongly influenced by the emphasized social justice, equality, and access to goods for everyone from the socialist era, which land owners disagree with. Inadequate management of goods, which are considered as public good, but are in fact common-pool resources, can lead to conflicts and degradation of common-pool resources, which might result in the loss of the advantages that allow human well-being. As our lives depend on the aforementioned natural resources, we have to raise awareness about them among the general public and experts, underline their vulnerability, and explain that they cannot be accessible to anyone in unlimited quantities. In an international context, using the Slovenian case, we aim to improve the understanding of human behaviour and expectations concerning public good and common-pool resources in post-socialist transitional societies.
COBISS.SI-ID: 40888109