The change in the forest land share in communes threatened bysuburbanisation and the sustainable development principle

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to examine the scale of the depletion of forest lands in the areas bordering on the capitals of Polish voivodeships. The analysis of the communes around studied urban centres allows for the assessment of the local governments’ spatial development policy with reference to forest lands. The paper shows how local authorities prevent these lands from disappearing and how closely this task is related to the usage of the spatial information instruments such as land use plans (spatial development plans). In the paper the index of the loss of forest land has been used. It estimates the percentage of the forest land that constitutes forest land intended for deforestation in land use plans with reference to the total area of forest land registered in a commune in 2013. Out of the 148 communes that border on capitals of voivodeships only 34 were qualified for the research, namely those with index of forest land depletion higher than its average value for Poland. One of the conclusions of the research is that areas particularly threatened by the loss of forest lands are those that border on Warsaw, Łódź and Lublin.