Slovenia became an independent state in 1991 with immigration flows in the country strengthening since 1998. The majority of the immigrants, mostly seeking employment, originate from the former Yugoslav republics. Parallel to this work migration flow from the south and after accession to the EU, Slovenia also attracted other types of migration from EU member states particularly amenity migrants. These amenity migrants show a strong interest in the Slovenian peripheral rural regions with its reasonably priced real estate and its natural landscape character. In the case of these foreign home owners an important question is whether and to what extent they are symptomatic of the processes of globalization? To address this, a detailed survey has been conducted in the Pomurska region located in eastern Slovenia and bordering Hungary, Austria and Croatia. The survey focused on foreign homeowners who either became permanent residents or who are second home owners. The results of this empirical work prove very insightful of the processes going on in the region and the integration of migrants into rural society in Slovenia.Slovenija se je osamosvojila leta 1991, priseljevanje pretežno iz območij bivših jugoslovanskih republik pa se je okrepilo predvsem po letu 1998. Prevladovali so delovni migranti, z vstopom Slovenije v EU pa se je povečalo zanimanje tudi iz drugih držav članic. Če so se priseljenci, ki so iskali delo, selili predvsem v regionalna in gospodarsko močna središča, so migracije na podeželje v veliki meri povezane z veliko privlačnostjo (naravnega) okolja, istočasno pa so (bile) cenovno zelo dostopne tudi nepremičnine. V primeru tujcev oziroma tujih lastnikov nepremičnin (hiš) na podeželju se sproža vprašanje, ali so le-ti nosilci ali že učinek globalizacije v širšem evropskem prostoru? Prav zato je bila izvedena raziskava med tujci v Prekmurski statistični regiji, ki leži na skrajnem vzhodu Slovenije in meji na Avstrijo, Madžarsko in Hrvaško. Osredotočili smo se na tuje lastnike nepremičnin, ki bodisi v regijo prihajajo le občasno in solastniki počitniških bivališč ali pa so že stalno priseljeni. Rezultati intervjujev s priseljenci osvetljujejo ta nov pojav v regiji pa tudi procese njihovega vključevanja družbo

In 2020, 957 tourist farms in Slovenia were offering accommodation and/or food and beverages. Due to the legal framework (the law requires a high minimum percentage of own production), the offer of Slovenian tourist farms is strongly linked to their own agricultural production and the local rural environment. The paper addresses various aspects of sustainable rural tourism, focusing on organic tourist farms. The research?s goal was to find out whether Slovenian organic tourist farms are more sustainable than other (non-organic) tourist farms in terms of the presence of various elements (environmental friendliness, biodiversity preservation and nature conservation, equity and social justice, economic success) of sustainable tourism. These elements were selected to address all the three dimensions of sustainability-environmental, social, and economic. The research used secondary sources data on organic production and various sustainable tourism practices on tourist farms (accessible tourism, sustainable tourism labels, links with protected areas, etc.) and some other relevant characteristics of these farms (the production of native and traditional crop varieties). In addition, a survey was conducted on a random sample of 129 tourist farms. The results have shown that the assumption of greater sustainability of organic tourist farms is valid, not only in the system of agricultural production, which is the legally established basis for labeling the farm as organic, but also from some other aspects (greater representation of sustainable labels, greater presence of native/traditional varieties and breeds, more frequent links with protected areas, etc.).

The heterogeneity and huge regional diversity as key determinant of Slovenian rural areas have not been considered enough in the case of regional development directing. Extensive and multilane questionnaire of case study areas (the survey included 10 selected problem areas) pointed out the most evident development problems and future development opportunities. The latest ought to be respected with the planning and guidance of endogenous regional development. The demographic potential as the basis condition for "realistic planning" is upgraded with the de facto household vitality (i.e. demographic vitality), which enables the most reliable demographic structure review. Various forms of demographic vitality significantly determine the approaches and measures for regional development stimulation. The mentioned are successful only with the simultaneous identification of endogenous resources, stimulation of social capital and human resources as key factors of endogenous development as a whole.

Brownfields sometimes represent a development problem but at the same time also hold development potential. With accurate and up-to-date information it is possible to assure the regeneration process is effective; therefore we investigated in detail the development of the process of brownfields management in two countries: Slovenia and the Czech Republic (the Moravian-Silesian Region). The article compares the process of development of databases and the data itself in both selected case studies, and evaluates and identifies the patterns of change in brownfields with a focus on regenerated sites. In the period 2017–2022 we have noticed a growing number of brownfields included in databases in both selected cases, despite the share of regenerated brownfield sites that have been excluded from the database. Both study cases show that ensuring continuity of work in the process of monitoring brownfields and knowledge transfer are critical for sustainable brownfield management and successful regeneration. Based on the comparisons, recommendations are summarised on how to make the database an effective tool that could be relevant to more sustainable brownfield development and land recycling.

The principles of sustainable development for protected areas give priority to environmental objectives, but the economic and social objectives, have an important development role as well. A version of regional development of protected...