African Journal of Agricultural Research Vol. 4 (13), pp. 1566-1573, December 2009 Special Review Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJAR ISSN 1991-637X © 2009 Academic Journals Standard Review Challenges of land use change and land protection in Vojvodina Galic Zoran*, Orlovic Sasa, Galovic Vladica, Poljakovic-Pajnik Leopold, Pap Predrag and Vasic Verica Institute of Lowland Forestry and Environment Novi Sad, Serbia. Accepted 7 December, 2009 The entire region of Vojvodina (region in northern Serbia) is an agricultural - steppe - forest zone. The area of Vojvodina covers 2,150,000 ha of which arable land is 1,579,643 ha (73,45 %). Total forested area is about 130,000 ha or 6% of the total area. At present, all the ecosystems (agro and forest ecosystems), in this region are highly endangered. This is the consequence of local and global economic activities after 1945, which altered societies relationship with the natural environment (Bouma et al., 1998). The soils in Vojvodina are affected by aridification, acidification, eutrophication and pollution. As a region with highly productive agricultural soil, it is subject to and endangered by, different destructive processes, primarily wind erosion, that is climatic extremes, because of which its maximal productive potential cannot be utilised. Wind erosion, as a very destructive factor, causes the detachment and transport of the most fertile particles of the arable topsoil, permanently changing its fertility properties. In addition droughts might also reduce yield. This is multiplied by potential effects of climate changes. Environmental improvement is only possible by integral understanding of urban, non-urban and green spaces, rural landscapes, protective green areas, diversity in agro-ecological areas and protected areas. That is why afforestation is planned over almost 100,000 ha by the establishment of different types of forest plantations and other plantations, such as greenways, shelterbelts, bee-keeping plantations, buffer plantations, eco-corridors, etc. By the implementation of planned afforestation, it could be possible to increase the yield in agriculture, timber production, protection against wind, to improve the environmental conditions, production of honey, development of hunting, sports, recreation tourism and sustainable land use. Key words: Sustainable land use, afforestation, agro - ecosystems, forest ecosystem. INTRODUCTION The entire region of Vojvodina (northern part of Serbia) is a mosaic of agricultural, steppe and forested zones. Its total area is 2,150,000 ha of which arable land occupies 1,579,643 ha or 73.45%. The region of Vojvodina belongs to the Pannonian Plain and is a grassland ecosystem, such as might be found in North America (Midwestern Plains), Russia (Belyaev, 2007) and China (Peng and Foster, 2007). Much of the former grassland has been cultivated. As grassland, this is a region where plant production is limited by soil moisture. The dominant soil type is a dark-brown chernozem, which develops typically under grasslands with humid climate (Zivkovic et *Corresponding author. E-mail: galicz@uns.ac.rs. al., 1972). A long-established scheme for classifying tem- perate grassland soils on the basis of A horizon organic matter content and colour was originally developed in Russia. It was used in the past, or is still applied, also in other parts of Eurasia and North America. In this scheme, dark-coloured chernozems occupy the humid part of the climatic range of grassland ecosystems (Belyaev, 2007; Pinno and Belanger, 2008). At present, the ecosystems in Vojvodina are highly endangered. This is the consequence of global economic activities after 1945 in Eastern Europe (Bouma et al., 1998). Societies relationship with the natural environment has been radically altered and the environmental change is the result of technological, socio-economic and political developments in each country. The main soil degradation types are chemical deterioration on 12%, water erosion