ABSTRACT
Uncultivated fields are found throughout the country although the greatest proportions of the total field area uncultivated fields have in the municipalities of northern and eastern Finland. The rural regions in various countries may differ a great deal from each other and each country has its own criteria for defining rural areas. The basis for landscape management in the countryside in Finnish conditions is keeping the farmland open. The field landscape is the most valuable when it is preserved open with the help of normal pursuing of trades. From the point of view of landscape management or environmental control, natural production is an ideal way of managing the countryside. The plans to use arable land for non-food production have aroused debate which is ethical in nature. The yield from the fields would be harvested yearly, and the rural landscape would be preserved as it was before, at least as far as the fields are concerned.
