Deforestation of the Principality of Serbia, 1830-1878: Overview
Апстракт
The goal of this article is to trace the appearance of a pattern of forest mismanagement from the beginnings
of modern Serbian state in the 19th century. The article will demonstrate that rapid demographic
growth, accompanied by the expansion of arable land due to a gradual transition from animal husbandry
to agriculture as the dominant form of economy, led to a vigorous increase in the process of deforestation
in the period spanning from the attainment of autonomy (1830) to the wars against the Ottoman Empire
(1876-1878). Supremacy of agriculture in the beginning of the 1870s was achieved at the expense of forests,
because the increase in agricultural yields in the peasant existential economy, which was characterized
by underdeveloped agricultural techniques, meant a continuous expansion of arable land. The example
of the Principality of Serbia confirms that in agrarian economies competition between the usufruct of
the forest and its potential as agricultural land regularly e...