The aim of the paper is to present good practices of the European funds for protection and use natural and cultural heritage resources in rural areas. Such examples demonstrates that tourism development, promotion of traditional material and non-material culture as well as natural environment protection could accompany local economy development. Good practices also result in local self-governments’ activation, local small entrepreneurship development and improvement of quality of life in rural areas. In Poland, the Pilot Program Leader+ was implemented in years 2004–2006 and since then it has been an attractive option for rural society, a way to get funds for development. About eighty projects have won competitions and have been subsidized. The paper presents analysis of 25-projects sample, mainly concerning proposed activities supporting cultural and natural landscape, being a part of national strategy for rural areas sustainable development.

The evolution of rural entrepreneurship is intrinsic to multifunctional rural development, a way for the Polish countryside to become a more attractive place to live and work. The study was primarily aimed at determining the scale of non-agricultural economic activities in rural areas and identifying factors affecting rural entrepreneurship, particularly after Poland’s accession to the European Union. The fi ndings from the survey carried out by Institute of Agricultural Economics and Food Economy allowed to analyse the main trends in non-agricultural activities in rural areas. Nearly half of fi rms operating in rural areas were engaged in trade. This kind of activity does not involve special risk and it does not depend on level of education of owner which contributed to its popularity. Only one tenth of fi rms were represented by manufacturing companies as setting up this kind of entity demands involvement of special fi nancial means and also professional knowledge of its owner. The key role in supporting of rural entrepreneurship play local governments and their activities in the fi eld of investment and education.

The article looks into the population, agricultural labour force, agricultural productivity and overall economic activities in Libya between 1990 and 2004. In addition study analyses growth in agricultural productivity. The agricultural labour force in 1990 was 13.7% of total labour force; however, in 2004 it had dropped to 4.6%. This occurred because of people migration from villages to cities, looking for jobs in other economic sectors, since income from other sectors was higher. Other factors included: drop in rain fall, decrease in income reinvestment, and lack of qualifi ed labour force. The growth in agricultural labour productivity in 2004 by 12.7% was observed due to use of new technologies in the agricultural sector.

Prices and turnover of real estate has explicitly increased since 1979. The paper concerns agricultural land in private and the State Treasury turnover. The paper includes price growing tendencies in 1998–2005 in Poland and in the European Union. The increase was observed particularly in countries which recently entered the EU. Tendencies were considered on the example of private turnover, land of the Agricultural Property Agency (APA) and communes. Data come mainly from Central Statistical Offi ce (CSO) and APA. The data were presented using descriptive, comparative and statistic methods. The analysis results were shown in tabular and graphic forms. The most important conclusions concern: systematic increase of agricultural land prices, especially in private turnover which is varied in different provinces and the European Union Member States.

The paper presents aspects connected with organizational culture. The research which was made in small and medium enterprises in Silesian province has been presented. The research was connected with estimation of organizational culture which supports innovation process. It was done in 2006. Presented model, which enable estimation of organizational culture, can be used in different ways: to monitor and estimate changes, to describe culture of teams, and to improve process of fusion and acquisition of new knowledge. The enterprises which tend to be innovative should concentrate on described factors to create culture, which enable localization, development, transfer and sharing of knowledge. The workers should be responsible for processes connected with knowledge management and processes connected with innovation.

The paper introduces results of empirical research, which were carried out in 2004. The research was done in nine of the biggest food enterprises, which use internet marketing to consumers (customers). Moreover, there were presented relations between a classical form of marketing and internet marketing. The part of the paper is concentrated on limitations of the classical marketing. Finally, the paper presents main opportunities and barriers of using marketing in internet actions.

The marketplace shopping in Poland has a very long tradition but this form of trade was developing very fast in our country during the transformation years. In his paper an attempt was made to analyze the variability trend of the phenomenon in the period preceding Poland’s accession to the European Union. To this end, an analysis was made of the number of permanent marketplaces, the number of permanent market stalls in permanent marketplaces and the sales area in permanent marketplaces in Poland in the years 1999–2004. At the country scale, a slightly declining dynamics of marketplace shopping was noticed, and its high spatial and time variability as well its signifi cant dependence on cross-border shopping were observed. In western and southern Poland downward trends were prevalent, and in eastern and central Poland upward trends were observed.

The aim of the paper was to analyse the mechanics in agri-environmental actions which were realized since 2004 to 2006. The actions were made up of 7 packets that were divided into variant and tasks. In particular regions there were separated priority zones which included 770.8 thousand ha. During the discussed period farmers applied for 46.7 thousand proposals, what can be counted as 2918 proposals for a region. The granted farmers operated on the basis of special scheme realized by the certifi cated advisory offi cers. The payments amounted to 236.9 million PLN in total. The realization of this process was slower than the established prognosis and the unfeasible means were designed for other aims.