Suchergebnisse

Abstract. This article presents a holistic approach for assessing agrarian sustainability in Bulgaria based on its economic, social and ecological aspects on sectoral macro-level. It is based on official statistical and other information as well as on expert evaluation. Our study has found that the Bulgarian agriculture on macro-level has good sustainability. Some of the sustainability aspects have higher levels such as the economic aspect, while others like social and environmental aspects are inferior. Study results could help in focusing the political efforts, so that the agrarian sustainability, in its social and ecological aspect, could be increased. However, a further research is needed to evaluate the level of sustainability at micro-level, so that the major issues and problem areas are addressed accordingly.Keywords. Agrarian sustainability, Sustainability indicators, Ecological aspects, Bulgarian agriculture.JEL. Q10, Q56, R33.

The ecosystem approach has been widely incorporated in the management and evaluation of agrarian sustainability. Despite enormous progress in this new evolving area, still there is no consensus on how to assess the sustainability of agro-ecosystems due to the diversity in understandings, approaches, methods, employed data, etc. In Bulgaria there are no comprehensive studies on the integral, socio-economic and ecological sustainability of the different types of agro-ecosystems. This paper makes a first attempt at assessing the sustainability of agro-ecosystems in Bulgaria. Initially, a holistic framework for assessing the integral, economic, social and ecological sustainability of agro-ecosystems, which includes 17 principles, 35 criteria, and 46 indicators and reference values, is suggested. After that, the integral and the multi-aspect sustainability of 7 generic and 10 specific agro-ecosystems in Bulgaria are assessed. The estimates are based on first-hand information collected by the managers of "typical" farms operating in different agro-ecosystems in 4 geographical regions of the country. The study has found out that there is a substantial variation in the level of integral and multi-aspect sustainability of the different types of agro-ecosystems, as well as in the level of contribution to the sustainability of various sub-sectors of agriculture and farms of different juridical type and size, where the individual indicators with the highest and lowest values show the (critical) factors which enhance or deter sustainability.