Proposal of the environmental indicators for measuring sustainable rural development

Koncept održivog razvoja ima tri komponente: ekološku, ekonomsku i društvenu. U ovom je radu odabirom pet ekoloških indikatora obuhvaćena ekološka komponenta. Indikatori su birani s obzirom na učestalost njihova predlaganja i korištenja u dokumentima Europske unije (EU) i znanstvenim radovima. Cilj rada je vrednovati ekološke indikatore uz argumentiranje njihove važnosti za postizanje održivog ruralnog razvoja provođenjem ankete među ekspertima i različitim dionicima ruralnog razvoja. U anketi je sudjelovalo 47 ispitanika. Od predloženih je indikatora najvišu prosječnu ocjenu dobio indikator zastupljenost ekološke poljoprivrede u ukupnoj poljoprivredi (4,15), a slijede ga biološka raznolikost biljnih i životinjskih vrsta (4,09), upotreba pesticida/ha (4,06), broj uvjetnih grla/ha korištenog zemljišta (4,00) i upotreba mineralnih gnojiva/ha (3,91).Sustainable development has three components: environmental, economic and social. In this paper is encompassed the environmental component by selecting five environmental indicators. The indicators were selected based on the frequency of their proposal and use in EU documents and scientific papers. The aim of the paper is to evaluate environmental indicators with arguing their importance for achieving sustainable rural development by conducting surveys among experts and stakeholders of rural development. The survey included 47 respondents. The highest average grade of the proposed indicators is given to the indicator share of organic farming in the overall agriculture (4.15), following by the biological diversity of plant and animal species (4.09), the use of pesticides/ha (4.06), the number of livestock units/ha of land (4.00) and the use of fertilizer / ha (3.91)