The Slovenian climate has undergone significant fluctuations, and an understanding of the past climate is necessary to improve models and recognise long-term patterns. The cryosphere environment, ...such as ice core samples, provides valuable palaeoclimate data. Palynology and dendroclimatology are also effective ways to study long-term changes in vegetation and reconstruct past climates using pollen and tree proxies. Sediment cores from various locations in Slovenia have been studied to understand past environmental changes. Borehole temperature profiles as well as historical records were also used to reconstruct past climate conditions. Studies have shown specific periods when climatic changes likely played a major role, but a complete timeline of the Slovenian climate throughout the Holocene has not yet been fully developed.
The main challenge of cultural landscapes is how to manage them, and the concept of commons through collective actions can help in this regard. Based on a questionnaire, 21 collective actions related ...to cultural landscapes in Slovenia were examined using descriptive statistics. Results show that 1) traditional and transforming commons deal with forests and pastures, whereas new ones are more diverse regarding land use but in significantly smaller areas; 2) new commons indicate possible future mechanism, but they do not (yet) have an impact on cultural landscapes; 3) the main benefits of commons refer to social aspects followed by non-material and regulative benefits; material benefits are ranked last; and 4) new collective actions, especially in urban areas, have difficulties obtaining lands which threatens their existence.
This article presents cartographic teaching materials used in two different periods: the second half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the 2020s. During the first period examined, the ...works of Blaž Kocen (also Blasius Kozenn) laid the foundations of school cartography in the Habsburg Monarchy. The most highly valued among them in central Europe were his atlases, which have the longest tradition of publishing in the world. In the second period, technological development and the COVID-19 pandemic laid the foundations for a faster transition to digital approaches to teaching. This article examines the use of maps, atlases, and textbooks by Slovenian geography teachers to determine whether modern (digital) teaching materials have replaced or will replace the traditional (paper) ones. It was established that the use of printed cartographic materials continues to predominate in geography teaching, which indirectly preserves the importance of Kocen’s pioneering and visionary work.
The Cuxtal Ecological Reserve is located in the urban periphery of Merida. This reserve represents an element of tourist interest due to the diversity of tourist resources, although these have not ...been recognized yet. In addition, most of the local population has traditional culinary knowledge, which is little explored from a tourist perspective. This article proposes to identify the culinary resources of the reserve to elaborate a culinary map. The study is based on in-depth interviews with residents to assess their culinary knowledge, visitor surveys, and the field´s traditional food and agricultural product mapping. The results show that it has the potential to develop culinary tourism. Gastronomy can play an important role in boosting the local economy and conserving culinary identity among the inhabitants under the pressure of ultra-processed food from Merida.
The aim of this article is to apply Shannon's entropy model in the study of demographic reproduction dynamics of the population in the Republic of Serbia from the regional aspect (NUTS 3 level) in ...the period from 1961 to 2021. Based on the values of absolute and relative entropy, the tendencies of demographic dynamics are determined, which is one of the most important parameters for building an optimal scheme of territorial organization and population distribution. In this context, explanations and conclusions were given about the homogeneity (or heterogeneity) of demographic dynamics and regional differentiation of demographic space in Serbia.
Transhumance is a form of livestock management including seasonal movement of livestock and people. Based on literature studies, interviews, field conversations and visits, this article aims to show ...the different ways in which transhumance practitioners currently manage land – which to a large degree is different types of commons – and to discuss opportunities for sustainable future land management. Transhumance has been declining especially since the mid-20th century. While new opportunities for transhumance practitioners have occurred, such as landscape management for biodiversity purposes and urban transhumance, efforts to support transhumance need to be reinforced. Commons play an important role in providing access to land in rural and – to a limited degree – in urban areas.
This article aims to analyse the response of private forest owners to a series of extreme environmental disturbances in the Slovenian karst region in the period 2014–2016. Quantitative and ...qualitative analysis of empirical forest management data on response time and harvesting time, as well as interpretations of response drivers, led to the identification of forest commons as a fast and efficient type of forest ownership, despite almost a century of state suppression of their local institutions. Among the internal and external response drivers, a norm of responsibility and forest management competence were highlighted. Our study highlights the potential of forest commons for active forest management in Europe. A concerted response from private and state institutions should not only take into account economies of scale, but also traditional knowledge and local social norms
The article addresses the governance of water commons with an emphasis on drinking water. The study applied two conceptual frameworks: Ostrom's Design Principles and the Social-Ecological Systems ...framework. The empirical part refers to two water commons in Slovenia and is based on qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with locals and professionals. The article follows three objectives: 1) to identify the drivers and motivations for successful local water governance; 2) to assess the robustness of water commons in terms of current and future challenges; 3) to identify the benefits of water commons. The key elements for the functioning of the two local communities under examination are shared interests, as well as a strong commitment to effective management. In addition to the material benefits (i.e. drinking water supply), non-material ones are also important. Community building and identity are particularly noteworthy. The importance of small drinking water supply systems that are well organised and responsibly governed as commons is beneficial not only to a municipality but also to a country.
Atlant was the first world atlas in Slovenian. It was published between 1869 and 1877, when most Slovenians lived in Austria-Hungary. The first-ever world atlas was authored by Abraham Ortelius and ...published in 1570, and the first Austrian world atlas was published in 1796 by Franz Johann Joseph von Reilly. In both of them, the territory of what is now Slovenia is depicted on several maps. Atlant was edited by Matej Cigale, who carried out pioneering work in Slovenianizing geographical names and preserving Slovenian exonyms. The Slovenian geographical names used in the atlas reflect the relationships at the time between Slovenian and other languages. Atlas is important because it uses Slovenian geographical names on the maps. It also influenced later world atlases, especially the first school atlases in Slovenian. A facsimile of Atlant with accompanying studies was published in 2005.
The Balkan countries undergoing the transition must advance their economies to be more competitive. The aim of this paper is to analyse economic growth with a primary focus on the analysis of ...economic convergence in the Balkan region in the period of 1997–2020. The research analyses the following Balkan economies: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia. This study applies Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of economic growth and is based on the neoclassical economic growth model: the Solow's convergence concept. The results show that the Balkan countries experienced economic convergence with a speed of 1.82% in the cross-sectional model and 7.87% in the panel data model. It means that the initially less developed economies noted higher economic growth than those richer.
