Summary:

Continuous economic development and expansion of urbanised land result in changes in land use. The rules of protection of arable and forest land, as well as reclamation and improvement of the useful value of land are regulated by the act of 3 February 1995 on the protection of arable and forest land with further amendments. The act particularly specifies the rules of changes in the purpose of arable and forest land, and rules of exclusion of arable and forest land from production. The change of purpose and exclusion of land from production are two basic legal instruments which must be considered by all entities planning for example conducting building investments on arable and forest land.
The article presents the issue of the exclusion of arable land from production in the context of updates of land and building register. The scale of exclusions of land from production in Poland was determined. Detailed research was conducted in the Zwoleński poviat with agricultural character, located in the southern part of the Mazowieckie province. The analysis of the process of exclusion of arable land from production as well as changes in the structure of arable land use in the Zwoleński poviat in the years 2005-2014 was performed. The research employed report RRW-11 from the implementation of provisions on the protection of arable and forest land in the scope of exclusion of land from agricultural production, reclamation and management of land and resources, and exploitation of peat deposits. The structure of changes in arable land use was determined based on data from the land and building register obtained from the Poviat Office in Zwoleń.
In the studied poviat, an evident increase in the area of developed and urbanised land was observed at the expense of arable land. Lack of systematic updates of the land and building register was also determined in the scope of data concerning the purpose of land in the study period.