The changing socio-economic conditions since the Second World War have had an effct on land use. Local and global factors have inflenced the East Carpathians Biosphere Reserve territory, which has shown an increasing extensifia- tion of agricultural activity, leading to a gradually overgrowing landscape. Crucially, typical mountain meadows are under threat. This is a direct result of the inhibition of typical forms of land use such as livestock grazing in combination with mowing meadows. One possibility of restitution of such adverse developments is a more effient use of fiancial subsidies available from European Union support schemes. Effctive use of subsidies creates the opportunity to stop these adverse trends, but may stimulate other transformation processes in marginal areas.