Mazovia

The Mazowieckie Voivodeship is a region of active social and economic development and a rapidly progressing urbanisation process. At the same time, agriculture is of vital importance for the region’s economy and a major part of the region’s inhabitants live in rural areas. Fast economic growth entails a large number of unfavourable tendencies such as increasing land prices, negative demographic changes concerning inhabitants of rural areas, landscape degradation and urban pressure on the areas of natural beauty. These tendancies are particularly intense in the Metropolitan Area of Warsaw.

In the Voivodeship, an agricultural landscape predominates, consisting mainly of arable land and orchards. 20 % of the region’s area is covered with forests, mainly pine and oak. In Mazovia, a remnant of the backwoods, which used to cover Europe, is the Kampinos Forest. Additionally, (see map) there are six landscape parks and over a thousand nature reserves in the region.

Agricultural and horticultural production
The Region of Mazovia has a considerable potential for food and agricultural product processing. It is a huge source of horticulture and fruit-growing. Approximately 30% of the area of orchards in Poland are located in Mazovia, which constitutes over 40% of national fruit production. Over half the apples and 25% of strawberries are produced in the Mazowieckie Voivodeship. Mazovia is also a leading producer of vegetables and the second largest producer of basic cereals in Poland. Moreover, the Mazowieckie Voivodeship is a leading producer of milk in Poland. Meat production is another of the region’s strong points.

Fruit-growing is concentrated mainly in the southern part of the region. Market gardening, on the other hand, is spread mainly along the Vistula River and in the southwest part of the Warsaw conurbation. Modern dairy farms can be found in the northern part of the region, whereas aviculture is located in northwest areas.

 

Peri-urban area In the vicinity of Warsaw. Zegrzynskie Lake
Photo: Grzegorz Sledz

 

Population increases in peri-urban areas
Although the phenomena and processes characteristic for peri-urban areas occur in the vicinity of all towns and cities in Mazovia (see map), they are particularly evident in the surroundings of Warsaw.
The Warsaw Metropolitan Area (WMA) – is an informal territorial unit being used to analyse functional relations between Warsaw and its surroundings (see map). In the last 12 years the population in rural areas surrounding towns and cities in WMA (see map) has increased by 18% and reached a 17% share in the population of whole WMA (including Warsaw). This high rate of growth was mainly due to positive net migration, with an annual average of 1.03% in rural areas in WMA (though many rural municipalities surrounding Warsaw directly have recorded a figure as high as 2%). The intensity of this process is particularly outstanding when compared to the net migration in the whole WMA – 0.48%, and the rural areas in Mazovia region generally – 0.1%.

Economic Growth brings increased urbanisation
Peri-urban areas in the vicinity of Warsaw are also characterised by high economic growth and increased urbanisation. Since 1992 at least 27 thousand hectares of the best agricultural land have been allocated to other purposes. In the short period from 2002 to 2005 the number of municipalities, in which the share of urbanised land has reached 15%, has increased from 33 to 42 (see map). The process of urban sprawl progresses every year. In 2008 the share of urbanised area increased by at least 10%, in comparison to the previous year, in 26 municipalities surrounding Warsaw.
Mitigating the negative effects of city sprawl requires seizing the development opportunities of Mazovia’s rural areas concentrated around the conurbation. It is necessary to make good use of the peri-urban areas’ potential: i.e. the proximity of the market for food products, the possibility to serve recreational and tourist needs or the provision of all kinds of services to the city dwellers. At the same time, it needs to be ensured that all these processes progress with due respect for the natural environment and preservation of the nature of peri-urban areas.

The challenges that our region faces include, on the one hand, prevention of problems of peri-urban areas, such as ageing society, a lack of young farmers, creation of job opportunities outside agriculture and life quality improvement and, on the other, streaming for the increased penetration of development processes from the metropolis to rural areas and for the reduction of interregional diversity.

Purple provides our region with the possibility to exchange experiences and best practices regarding stimulation of peri-urban area development. As a result of our participation in the Peri-Urban Regions Platform we gain access to the knowledge possessed by other network members. We are interested in activities related to the development of the local products market, shaping open spaces and taking advantage of the natural environment potential and cultural heritage for the development of peri-urban areas.

General data:

Country: Poland
Total area: 35,558 km2 
Population: 5,118,488
Density: 145.9 hab/km2
Agriculture land use: 59% (of total area)
Arable land: 66% (of agricultural land)
Main economic activities: Food and drink processing, chemical industry, telecommunication production and services
Main agricultural products cereals, vegetables, potatoes, apples, cow's milk
Last updated: 22 Apr 2009