Usage of the Mountain Areas in the Republic of Macedonia

Abstract

According to the geomorphologic structure of the relief in the Republic of Macedonia mountain areas (along with the frontiers of displaced villages) cover around 47.6% of the total area. Almost 25% of the total number of village settlements in the country is on this territory (Panov, 1993; Panov M., 1998; Stojmilov, 2005), but only 9.5% of the total village population recorded in 2002 in the Republic of Macedonia lives in it. In the past 50 years, there has been rapid decline of the population in mountain areas. As a result, in 2002, 47 village settlements in the mountains had been displaced, and the population density was barely 10 people per km². In favor of this is the fact that in 2002 there had been 1.2 ha arable land per person which is double in comparison with 1961. Especially, negative usage of farmlands happened in the villages of up to 300 people, with 5.2 ha per person. These villages have mostly single and aged households. At the same time, although mountainous areas have conditions to develop other activities, such as mining, various types of tourism, they are not adequately used.