National Land Agency BPN - Republic of Indonesia (1995):
International Workshop on the Implementation of Rural Land Consolidation

10.3.3 Tasks of land consolidation

Land consolidation reorganizes rural landed property. Its goal is to shape the individual parcel, and the relationship between parcels, in a manner that meets requirements. This is necessary, because real estate (parcels of land and buildings), if it is to be sensibly used, must have an appropriate location, form, size and neighborhood. The reorganization, therefore, occurs in the best interest of the affected land owners.

The reorganization comprises:

regulation of legal aspects of ownership (land register, cadastre),

renewal of the agricultural structure, infrastructure and ecology in the land consolidation area.

The mission of land consolidation is formulated in Section 1 of the Land Consolidation Act:

Fig. 5: Section 1 German Land Consolidation Act

You can see that the purpose of land consolidation is to promote integrated rural development.

Let us take a look at the manifold possibilities for improvement through land consolidation:

10.3.3.1 Agriculture and forestry

Land consolidation must particularly help rural agriculture and its various forms of business (full-time and part-time).

Land consolidation's focus comprises the improvement of production and working conditions in agriculture and forestry. Land consolidation helps to preserve or create agriculture that

• is based on private property
• is adapted to its location, to the environment and to the market.

Reorganization and lot regroupment of rural property, and the development of the agricultural infrastructure (roads, water resources) help reduce production costs. They also reduce workloads and eliminate structural shortcomings. Improved working conditions are also intended to permit added income, through secondary occupations: they can provide opportunities for earning income outside of agriculture.

Let me show you an example of this:

Fig. 6: Property and rental structure before land consolidation

The example shows the owned areas of a full-time farm enterprise in purple, its leased areas in yellow, orange and red.

The agrarian structure conditions are poor:

• many parcels, and long ways,
• unfavorable pattern of plots of land,
• poor opening-up of plots of land.

Fig. 7: Property and rental structure after land consolidation.

The result of land consolidation shows a great degree of rationalization:

the full-time farm has large parcels of land Iying close together and easy to manage. Its owned and rented areas have been consolidated.

Besides its area in the village, the part-time farm only has one managed area, facilitating efficient management.

The parcels of land were opened up through new roads. They are now accessible quickly and through large machines, saving much time and fuel and putting less wear and tear on the machinery.

I would like to cite a further example to show you how land consolidation has accompanied structural change in agriculture. In many cases, land consolidation was necessary to even create the conditions for modern, competitive farms.

Fig. 8: Land consolidation changing with the times - from 1850 until today

1850:

The upper picture shows a community in the middle of last century, before the first land consolidation.

1857:

The picture in the middle shows the situation in the mid-1970s.

1974:

The picture at the bottom shows today's situation. A construction area (red) and a pond area were made possible through soil organization. Land consolidation has been a positive influence on the development of agriculture and the communities here over the past 150 years.

Land consolidation leads overall to considerably increased efficiency for German agriculture. Let me summarize the positive effects as follows:

Fig. 9: Effects of land consolidation

10.3.3.2 Environmental protection and conservation

The overall economic and structural benefits of land consolidation are not limited to agriculture, but also include an important contribution to safeguarding and preserving our cultivating landscape.

We in Germany do not want regions to be given up and to be deserted due to a structurally weak agriculture.

We want land management on a nation-wide basis.

Land consolidation can be a great help in this respect.

In all countries with problems of agricultural surpluses and an ecological orientation within society, environmental and conservation projects are implemented directly through special land consolidation procedures, or they are given equal priority within other development measures. In cooperation with representatives of conservation and environmental authorities and groups, land consolidation helps provide and shape land for nature reserves, interconnect agricultural areas with various landscape elements and implement long-term set-aside and extensification programs.

The effects of land consolidation on the whole economy are clearly shown by this example of a very small-scale, but highly effective land consolidation:

Fig. 10: Dannenberger Marsch - integrated rural development on a small scale - before land consolidation

Fig. 11: Dannenberger Marsch - integrated rural development on a small scale - after land consolidation

10.3.3.3 Regional development

An integral part of regional rural development is village renewal to improve the rural settlement structures. In many cases, it is promoted as part of land consolidation processes, which is particularly valuable in view of the direct relationship of developments in villages and village fields. But it is also meaningful when independent of land consolidation processes.

Every year, around DM 350 million ($240 million) in government subsidies are granted. It must be assumed that with the aid of public promotion, the amount of investment by private agencies triggered off is up to seven times higher.

Thus village renewal acts as a trigger in every respect. It vitalizes development because of the need to think about future community plans. And it is an economic support program for the promotion of small and middle-size businesses in rural areas. Village renewal programs have a positive influence on the job situation in rural areas. This is of special significance in the isolated rural areas in the eastern Länder, to counteract the loss of jobs following the restructuring of agricultural enterprises (1989: 850,000 jobs in agriculture, 1994: less than 200,000 jobs with a continuing downward trend) and halt the exodus to densely populated urban areas.

Village investment programs, such as:

• improvement of internal village traffic facilities,
• flood protection and ecological redevelopment of village water bodies,
• redesigning of village squares,
• renovation of agricultural buildings and development of farmyard,
• demolition of old agricultural buildings no longer in use or
• conversion of former agricultural buildings to create income perspectives,

generally need to be accompanied by land regulation. Thus it has proved advisable to link land consolidation and village renewal and to assign responsibility for funding to one authority. In Germany, this responsibility usually lies with the local land consolidation authorities of the federal states.

I would like to show another important task of land consolidation in supporting rural regional development:

An emphasis of current land consolidation (an emphasis that will be even greater in future) is on careful incorporation, into affected rural areas, of infrastructure projects requiring large areas of land. Examples of such projects include construction of interregional transportation arteries. Pan-European policies and global markets are expanding the areas within which companies operate. Their choices of location are determined by infrastructure prerequisites, especially connection to motorways and railways. As a consequence, there is growing industrial demand for further infrastructure expansion.

An important measure accompanying such infrastructure projects is a special land consolidation procedure, the so-called land consolidation procedure in connection with large-scale infrastructure projects. This procedure helps to:

• protect the land owners' rights and prevent expropriation;
• provide assistance in procuring land for such projects;

minimize the numerous disruptions of agriculture and forestry, and of the environment, that occur through such projects.

Let me document this aspect using an example:

Fig. 12: Land consolidation in connection with highway construction - former state
(This figure is only included in the hardcopy version of this document.)

The figure shows an agricultural community affected by the infrastructure project; here, it is an already existing railway line and a planned motorway (Autobahn).

The existing structures (areas, paths, bodies of water, biotope lines) will be cut up though this plan.

Fig. 13: Land consolidation in connection with highway construction - present state
(This figure is only included in the hardcopy version of this document.)

Through a special land consolidation, the community was adjusted to the new situation:

The areas for the autobahn were reserved. The land consolidation authority bought areas in the region in question anywhere. They were then exchanged into the motorway location route. Thus, property confiscation could be avoided.

The paths and areas were adjusted to the autobahn. Through consolidating plots of land, fewer bridges were needed, thus creating less expense for the motorway administration.

Interference with the ecology could be compensated for.

This special task of land consolidation is particularly eminently important in the new German Länder. Ever since German unification, the so-called "United Germany Transportation Projects" assume uppermost priority. It involves:

Fig. 14: Infrastructure projects ,,German Reunification" - railway construction

nine railway routes (around 1,900 km)

Fig. 15: Infrastructure projects ,,German Reunification" - motorway construction

seven motorways (2,000 km)

Fig. 16: Infrastructure projects ,,German Reunification" - canal construction

and a project to build a canal.

This makes it a total of over 4,000 km of routes being either expanded or newly constructed.

These infrastructure measures assume a key function in providing traffic links between the new Federal Länder and the rest of the country and for East-West traffic in Europe, which had been neglected for years. At the same time, they are an important prospect for the development of rural areas.

These infrastructure projects are being supported by land consolidation in the way described. That way, the rural region can better take advantage of the economic prospects offered by such an infrastructure measure.