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INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE IN AGRICULTURAL LAND PROTECTION THROUGH SPATIAL PLANNING METHODS (REVIEW PAPER)
Abstract
While urban land use planning receives much attention in land management in Bulgaria, agricultural land use planning has been significantly neglected. Today, more than ever, effective and efficient land use planning is needed to address the global and local challenges, such as protecting prime agricultural lands for food production, achieving sustainable productivity gains, improving water use efficiency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, etc. The objective of the paper is to review the international experience in rural and agricultural land use planning and its theoretical foundations, to identify and analyze the gaps in Bulgarian legislation in this area, and to develop some scientific ideas for including agricultural land planning into Bulgarian Regulatory Framework and its further implementation in practice. The need for agricultural territory planning in Bulgaria is emphasized. Intra-zoning of agricultural land on a holistic basis is proposed as a useful planning method for balancing agricultural development with the environmental protection, while maintaining both land productivity and the quality of natural resources. Information from strategic planning documents and literature resources from the USA, Canada, Australia, European and other countries is presented and analyzed. Issues of building permits, land categorization systems and assessment of land suitability for growing agricultural crops are studied.
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