Land Conversion for Suburban Housing: A Study of Urbanization Around Warsaw and Olsztyn, Poland ADAM WASILEWSKI* Department of Social and Regional Policy Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics ul. Swietokrzyska 20, 00-950 Warszawa 1, P.O. Box 984, Poland KRZYSZTOF KRUKOWSKI Faculty of Management University of Warmia and Mazury ul. Prawochenskiego 2/204, 10-957 Olsztyn, Poland ABSTRACT / In Poland of the 1990s, urban demand for hous- ing land around city agglomerations increased rapidly. The decreasing profitability of agricultural production also caused farmers to become interested in the sale of agricultural land for nonagricultural purposes, and new land legislation granted them the right to sell their land. Polish counties simultaneously received self-governing status, which allowed them to define the priorities for local development. Counties received addi- tional responsibility for land management and quickly demon- strated strong support for land conversion, which was per- ceived as a factor of local development. This paper argues that decentralization and the extension of private control over land have led to a loss of rural landscapes in Poland because farmers, county governments, and rural society in general gained from the conversion of agricultural to housing land. Rapid urbanization has significantly reduced the availability of open space around cities and threatened valuable land- scapes, for it has occurred in the absence of environmental safeguards. This paper reports findings from research in two counties, located in regions with diverse economic growth rates. Decentralization is particularly problematic if tax regula- tions and intergovernmental fiscal relations reward local au- thorities for urbanization but not environmental protection. Rural landscape has decreased over the past ten years—not only in Poland but all over Central and Eastern Europe (Ryszkowski 1994). The rural land- scape can be understood as a complex of ecological, economic, and cultural qualities on which human and other life forms depend. This process has especially affected areas bordering on urban agglomerations. In many cases, local and state decision-makers consider urbanization to be a chance for local economic devel- opment. The continuation of this process, however, requires more and more land—including areas which are environmentally valuable—to be converted into housing sites (Misiak 1994). In this respect, the prob- lem of land conversion has become one of the most current and urgent in Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) and has triggered the necessity of green space preservation. At the onset of the transformation, approximately 40% of the Polish population lived in rural areas and approximately 25% was involved in agriculture. The implementation of a market-driven economy in the agricultural sector resulted in a drastic decline in pro- duction profitability. Significant deterioration of the economic situation also affected small towns. Such cir- cumstances led to a gradual migration of rural citizens to large cities, which are currently showing the highest dynamics of economic development. Accelerated eco- nomic growth (expected following the Polish entry into the EU) could significantly speed up the migration process. Nevertheless, studies undertaken by the World Bank (2000) reveal a negative balance of migration from rural areas to urban centers in recent years. One of the causes of this phenomenon is an inflow of urban citizens to the outlying rural areas. This has accounted for the yearly conversion of approximately 10,000 ha of agricultural land in Poland since the 1990s. The land conversion issue has appeared at a time when Central and Eastern European governments have extended pri- vate control over land and shifted decision-making powers from the central to the local level. Since then, farmers have been able to independently decide on whether to sell or purchase land (Swinnen and others 1997). Most restrictions and difficulties related to land sales were lifted. Moreover, local authorities gained enhanced rights of self-government (Cichocki and Ci- elecka 1995). The aim of the new type of local authority in Poland is to satisfy the common needs of a broad and KEY WORDS: Urbanization; Decentralization; Governance; Property rights; Central and Eastern Europe Published online April 19, 2004. *Author to whom correspondence should be addressed, email: wasilewski@ierigz.waw.pl DOI: 10.1007/s00267-003-3010-x Environmental Management Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 291–303 © 2004 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.