This study investigates land use changes on an area of 128 km 2 in Jõgeva County, eastern Estonia, by comparing landscape types in a vegetation map from the 1950s with the land use structure described on the Estonian Basic Map produced in 2002. We concentrated in particular on changes in agricultural land, but also changes of both species-rich and species-poor habitats were studied. The most widespread process was forestation, which reduced the total area of arable land by 21% and of grassland nearly by 4%. During the 50 years the land use of 90% of the forest land area, 46% of the arable fields, and only 11% of the grasslands had remained spatially stable. The extremely high spatial turnover of grasslands is due to loss of historical meadows and wooded meadows. This suggests a decreased habitat quality of present grasslands. Most of the new agri-cultural land was created on species-rich grasslands and species-poor fens. Forest expanded mostly on species-rich grasslands and fertile arable land.