Cropland abandonment in the context of drought, economic restructuring, and migration in northeast Syria

Eklund, Lina, Mohr, Berit and Dinc, Pinar, (2024). Cropland abandonment in the context of drought, economic restructuring, and migration in northeast Syria. Environmental Research Letters, 19(1), 014077-n/a

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  • Sub-type Journal article
    Author Eklund, Lina
    Mohr, Berit
    Dinc, Pinar
    Title Cropland abandonment in the context of drought, economic restructuring, and migration in northeast Syria
    Appearing in Environmental Research Letters
    Volume 19
    Issue No. 1
    Publication Date 2024-01-12
    Place of Publication Bristol
    Publisher IOP Publishing Ltd
    Start page 014077
    End page n/a
    Language eng
    Abstract Farmland abandonment is often associated with biophysical, political, or socio-economic changes, like droughts, economic reforms, rural-urban migration, or armed conflicts. Syria has seen several such changes in the period between 2000–2011, however, few assessments of how these factors have interacted with land abandonment have been carried out. In this study we investigate land abandonment patterns in northeast Syria, using a land use classification based on satellite data to indicate agricultural drought impacts and land abandonment. We combine these data with information on land use and migration patterns collected through a unique fieldwork, including surveys and interviews with Syrian farmers who had migrated to Turkey. Our analysis shows that drought coincided with a strong drop in cultivated croplands in 2008 and 2009. We also found a comparatively high cropland abandonment between 2001 and 2013, however no strong increases during or after drought years. Local insights indicate that migration took place during both normal years and drought years, and that most migrants had abandoned their lands after leaving Syria. We suggest that long-term mismanagement of water resources along with changes in the political economy, drove land abandonment in northeast Syria between 2001 and 2010. After 2011, armed conflict likely drove abandonment, but rates remained similar to the pre-conflict period. We discuss the potential of land abandonment as an indicator of rural migration in areas where migration data is sparse and conclude that more research is needed to understand the migration-land abandonment nexus, particularly in the Middle East.
    Keyword conflict
    drought
    economic restructuring
    land abandonment
    migration
    Syria
    Copyright Holder author(s)
    Copyright Year 2024
    Copyright type Creative commons
    DOI 10.1088/1748-9326/ad1723
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    Created: Thu, 26 Sep 2024, 23:45:09 JST by Haideh Beigi on behalf of UNU INWEH