EN
In the paper a general background of sustainable development paradigm and its relation to rural areas and in agriculture was presented. It was shown that this concept is now commonly accepted social-economic and ecological philosophy for developing principles of resources management on European Union rural areas. However, implementation of sustainable development rules should be flexible taking into account commonly found diversity of natural and actual social-economic determinants across rural areas and, also, specific demands of local communities. Idea of farming systems was suggested to introduce sustainable development idea in practice using different tools and measures of external managements.