Experiences with Land Conolidation and Land Banking in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989 (FAO Land Tenure Working Paper 26) (original) (raw)
Related papers
2015
The Danish land consolidation tradition has its roots in the land reform launched in the 1780s. The first “modern” land consolidation law was adopted in 1924. The land consolidation procedure is today basically the same as the system which was introduced in 1955. Until 1990, land consolidation was used as an instrument for agricultural development (i.e. mainly through reduction of land fragmentation and increase in agricultural holding sizes). In 1990, the objective of implementing land consolidation was broadened. It was explicitly included in the preamble of the land consolidation law that the objective is both to contribute to agricultural development and to the implementation of nature and environmental projects as well as to provide land as compensation for agricultural holdings affected by such projects. Since 1990, the land consolidation and land banking instruments have proven to be absolutely essential in the process of reaching voluntary agreements with the landowners affe...
ENGLISH SUMMARY OF PH.D. THESIS The countries in Central and Eastern Europe began a remarkable transition from centrally planned economies towards market economies in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell. Land reforms were high on the political agenda in most of the countries. In some countries, land reforms resulted in a complete break-up of the large scale collective and state farms, while in other countries the farm structures fundamentally remain the same as before beginning of transition. In many countries in the region, land reforms have resulted in farm structures dominated by small and fragmented farms, which are not competitive in the globalized economy. Drawing on the classical theory on land fragmentation, this PhD study explores the coherence between the land reform approaches applied in 25 study countries and the outcome in form of farm structures and the fragmentation of both land ownership and land use. During the quarter of a Century, which has passed since the beginning of transition, most of the Central and Eastern European countries have introduced land consolidation instruments to address the structural problems with land fragmentation and small farm sizes. The PhD study analyses the experiences from introduction of land consolidation and land banking instruments in 25 countries in the region and provides the first full overview of the experiences achieved. Seven of the countries already have ongoing national land consolidation programs while land consolidation instruments have been introduced in further 13 countries, which not yet have an operational programme. Based on the analysis, it can be expected that additional four to five countries in the region may have ongoing programmes within the next four to five years. While land consolidation instruments are well on the way and still developing in the region, land banking instruments have largely failed in the region, at least as tools for supporting land consolidation programs. Based on the limited theory available, the analysis have revealed how limited land mobility is often hampering the outcome of land consolidation projects and also documented the need for land banking instruments in support of land consolidation programmes. Finally, the research has documented the need for a land consolidation model more suitable for the Central and Eastern European context than the classical models usually applied. Such a model, integrated voluntary land consolidation, has been presented and discussed. This thesis includes five papers accepted for publication in international peer-reviewed journals, of which four are already published, and two working papers published by FAO in their Land Tenure Working Paper Series.
2013
and Moldova, and in addition has used the FAO training materials on land consolidation in other projects in Croatia and Kosovo. The author has also contributed to FAO publications on land consolidation, including FAO Land Tenure Studies 6 (The design of land consolidation pilot projects in Central and Eastern Europe, 2003), FAO Land Tenure Manuals 1 (Operations manual for land consolidation pilot projects in Central and Eastern Europe, 2004), and FAO Land Tenure Policy Series 1 (Opportunities to mainstream land consolidation in rural development programmes of the European Union, 2008). 4. What conclusions can be drawn from the study of land reform and its outcome in Central and Eastern Europe? .
Land use and land reform in former Central and East European countries
2007
The importance of agriculture is decreasing all over the world. The aim of the paper is to compare the ownership structure and land use in some selected former Central and Eastern European countries. The property structure and land use is in dichotomy, the production is performed simultaneously on small-size farms which produce primarily for self-consumption. The importance of farm land leases is increasing. The present paper tries to identify the main differences and similarities in land ownership and property structure, the changes in the last fifteen years, what happened and whether the expectations had been met. Furthermore the paper compares the main regulations of land ownership and tenancy in different countries, explains land market protection, and the need of a real valuation system of land.
An explanation of land reform choices in Central and Eastern Europe
Policy Research Group Working Paper No, 1998
In all Central and East European countries (CEECs) land reform was a key part of the overall agrarian reforms. Various land reform procedures have been chosen and the selected procedures were not the most efficient ones in several cases. The efficiency and distributional impacts depend on the privatization and land reform process. The paper therefore explains the choice of the land reform processes by analyzing their efficiency and distributional effects --and how they differ between CEECs. It starts with an overview of the post-1989 land reforms in CEECs. The second section discusses the most efficient reform processes and compares these with the effectively chosen processes, identifying in which cases governments clearly have not chosen efficient land reforms. The third part indicates several key factors which have constrained CEEC governments in their choice of the land reform procedures and which have caused the choice of inefficient land reform process. Key factors are the history of the land ownership, including the postcollectivization ownership status, the ethnicity of precollectivization owners, and the equality of precollectivization asset distribution. These factors affect the distributional implications of the land reform, the (potential) conflict between efficiency, equity historical justice, and thus the political economy equilibrium. The last sections discuss two important issues in the CEEC land reforms: compensation of those who do not benefit from the reforms and the impact on effective property rights.
2013
and Moldova, and in addition has used the FAO training materials on land consolidation in other projects in Croatia and Kosovo. The author has also contributed to FAO publications on land consolidation, including FAO Land Tenure Studies 6 (The design of land consolidation pilot projects in Central and Eastern Europe, 2003), FAO Land Tenure Manuals 1 (Operations manual for land consolidation pilot projects in Central and Eastern Europe, 2004), and FAO Land Tenure Policy Series 1 (Opportunities to mainstream land consolidation in rural development programmes of the European Union, 2008). 4. What conclusions can be drawn from the study of land reform and its outcome in Central and Eastern Europe? .
From Land Reform to Land Consolidation in Central and Eastern Europe
The countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) began a remarkable transition from centrally planned economies towards market economies in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell. Land reforms were high on the political agenda in most of the countries. In some countries, land reforms resulted in a complete break-up of the large scale collective and state farms, while in other countries the farm structures fundamentally remain the same as before beginning of transition. In many countries in the region, land reforms have resulted in farm structures dominated by small and fragmented farms, which are not competitive in the globalized economy. Drawing on the classical theory on land fragmentation, a recent PhD study has explored the coherence between the land reform approaches applied in 25 study countries and the outcome in form of farm structures and the fragmentation of both land ownership and land use. The results of this study are explained and discussed in the paper. During the quarter of a Century, which has passed since the beginning of transition, most of the Central and Eastern European countries have introduced land consolidation instruments to address the structural problems with land fragmentation and small farm sizes. The PhD study has analyzed the experiences from introduction of land consolidation and land banking instruments in 25 countries in the region and provides the first full overview of the experiences achieved. The findings are summarized in the paper. Seven of the CEE countries already have ongoing national land consolidation programs while land consolidation instruments have been introduced in further 13 countries, which not yet have an operational programme. Based on the analysis, it can be expected that additional four to five countries in the region may have ongoing programmes within the next four to five years. While land consolidation instruments are well on the way and still developing in the region, land banking instruments have largely failed, at least as tools for supporting land consolidation programmes. Based on the limited theory available, the analysis have revealed how limited land mobility is often hampering the outcome of land consolidation projects and also documented the need for land banking instruments in support of land consolidation programmes. Finally, the research has documented the need for a land consolidation model more suitable for the Central and Eastern European context than the classical models usually applied. Such a model, integrated voluntary land consolidation, is been presented in the paper.
Index 1. Introduction and Background 2. A FAO Approach: Multifunctional use of rural space 3. FAO Experience 4. Current FAO Involvement in Land Fragmentation/Consolidation Endeavors 5. Conclusions 1 The authors are respectively Chief and Land Tenure and Rural Development Officer in the FAO Land Tenure Service. 2 Our thinking here hinges on the critical relationships between the land reforms of Europe starting with Denmark in 1780s and freedom from various servitudes and hence the obtaining of political rights. This was a process, fundamental in creating social and political definitions of person that were still going on in many countries in Central and Eastern Europe when WWII began (Riddell 1995). We will argue later in the paper that this has had profound implications for the restitution process.