The exodus from rural villages in Bulgaria, and around the world, is leaving behind an increasing number of abandoned homes and fields. While large-scale deforestation continues elsewhere, this phenomenon raises questions about the impact on ecosystems and biodiversity.
In southern Bulgaria , in the village of Tyurkmen, many brick houses sit empty. Their tile roofs are falling in. Gergana Daskalova, an ecologist who spent summers here with her grandparents as a young girl, points to a child's book lying amid the ruins.'Somebody poured their heart and soul in creating a home, and now it's just collapsing,' she says. A century ago, a thousand people lived in this village. Today, there are only about 200. People left for jobs in Bulgaria 's cities, or abroad.
Their heirs may still own land around the village where crops once grew, or sheep grazed, but much of that land now sits unused. Shrubs and small trees are taking over.This is a common situation in Bulgaria, and in a surprising number of rural villages around the world. Even while large farming enterprises clear forests in Brazil or Bolivia in order to graze cattle or grow crops, some farmers elsewhere are walking away from their land, letting nature reclaim it., a researcher on land use at the Free University Amsterdam. Small-scale farmers with rocky soil, steep hills, or scarce water'give up because they cannot compete,' Verburg says.and parts of New England. Much of that land is now covered in forests. In recent years, farmers have walked away from land in Eastern Europe,, the area of farm land that's been abandoned around the world since 1950 could be as much as half of Australia. Daskalova says it's having a profound impact on ecosystems, but that isn't getting the attention it deserves.'It's happening out of sight, out of mind. That's why so many people don't even realize that abandonment is happening, because it's out of their sight,' she says.She's now a research fellow at the University of Göttingen, in Germany, and she's trying to figure out whether this phenomenon is an ecological tragedy or an opportunity.'I really wanted to see, what does human migration mean for nature, for biodiversity?' Daskalova say
Rural Abandonment Ecosystems Biodiversity Bulgaria Land Use
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