In southern Bulgaria, in the village of Tyurkmen, many brick houses sit empty. Their tile roofs are falling in. Gergana Daskalova, an ecologist who spent summers here with her grandparents as a young girl, points to a child's book lying amid the ruins. 'Somebody poured their heart and soul in creating a home, and now it's just collapsing,' she says.
A century ago, a thousand people lived in this village. Today, there are only about 200. People left for jobs in Bulgaria's cities, or abroad. Their heirs may still own land around the village where crops once grew, but much of that land now sits unused.
Abandoned farmland 'is a worldwide phenomenon,' says Peter Verburg, a researcher on land use at the Free University Amsterdam. Small-scale farmers with rocky soil, steep hills, or scarce water 'give up because they cannot compete,' Verburg says.
Daskalova says it's having a profound impact on ecosystems, but that isn't getting the attention it deserves. 'It's happening out of sight, out of mind. That's why so many people don't even realize that abandonment is happening, because it's out of their sight.'
Collection
[
|
...
]