Rural Europe on the move English_chapt1_6 | Page 75

“Key decision-making about rural issues and rural lives are often made far from rural areas.” heavy machinery would struggle to negotiate the rocky outcrops, steep slopes and tricky access to remote areas. This meant that the ancient, abundant woodland and rich biodiversity were kept largely intact. The area is home to small-scale, mixed agriculture focused on using traditional practices. “Don’t have all your eggs in one basket” is a concept deeply rooted in the mentality of the peasants. This careful cultivation preserves both natural and cultural heritage and maintains the delicate harmony between humans and the natural world. Collectivists cultivated the land in large teams. Individual incentive was limited and so the quality of the farming and care for the natural Collectivism versus self-sufficient communities In Romania, the harmony between systems in which it operated was limited. The tight-knit, self-sufficient communities in rural areas became a problem for Nicolae Ceaușescu, humans and nature has often been general secretary of the Romanian disrupted by politics. Between 1940 Communist Party. In 1970, under and 1962, the communist regime the ‘systematisation of the territory’ expropriated farmland ‘en masse’. programme he forced an aggressive Private property was limited to industrialisation of the countryside, household farms and collective including some parts of Transylvania. and state farms became the That resulted in the destruction of primary landowners. It was a forced villages, the demolition of houses and collectivisation: my uncle was told the uprooting of people. Families were that he would lose his teaching moved into towns and put into small position unless his family gave up flats. Local oral histories tell us that their land. He did not have a choice. elderly people began taking their own As small farms disappeared, the lives, in their own homes, fearful of way and quality of farming changed. the forced evictions. 1a. 1b. 1c. European Herb Gathering 2018 in Lupeni, Transylvania 71