Professional paper
Tenant Farmers' Economy in the Kornati National Park Protected Area
Vladimir Skračić
; Philosophie Faculty of Zadar, University of Split, Croatia
Abstract
Since the Kornati National Park spreads on the islands which were private property of
heirs of the people who used to farm the land on Kornati as tenants, and as the interests
of the real proprietors were not taken into consideration in the making of physical plans
of the area, the authors of this paper dealt with the specific tenant farmers' economy in
the National Park protected area. The paper was made by reworking one part of a study
made for the pm·pose of modification and amendments of the physical plan of the area. Its
main aim was to define the place and the role of the tenant's land in the National Park
Kornati protected area as well as the place and the role of the tenants within the system of
protecting. Yet, as this problem has never been the subject matter of scientific and professional
researches, this paper remains on the plane of identification of the ••gaps« that need
to be filled in through future researches.
At first, the commune of Zadar, who was the proprietor of Kornati islands, rented them to
its wealthy citizens who then sublet them to their tenant farmers, most often the inhabitants
of Dugi Otok island. The new tenant farmers, the inhabitants of the island Murter
(who are even today owners of almost four fifths of the Kornati area), in search of a new
space to live (as their island become overpopulated because of the massive inflow of refugees
escaping from the Turks) brought their flocks to Kornati pasture in 1627. Since the
second half of the 19th century the former tenants have three times bought the Kornati
pasture back, but the inhabitants of Dugi Otok remained the owners of fertile arable
fields. The tenants were farm labourers and herdsmen without any production means and
completely excluded from fishing. Moreover, their domicile wasn't on any of Kornati islands
but on their home island and that caused the so-called over-seas, tenant's model of
land property manageme nt, a specific architecture, the way of living during the stay on the
estate etc. In the meantime the estate was parcelled out into small plots and as by the
proclamation of the National Park the atmosphere of uncertainty for the property arose,
the authors give the account of the present situation pleading the proprietors' particular interests
to be protected in a way that will not jeopardize the general interest and the narure
protection.
Keywords
tenant farmer's estate; National Park management, proprietors' interest and the nature protection; Kornati islands
Hrčak ID:
100343
URI
Publication date:
12.12.2002.
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