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

11.2 The Main Tasks of Land Consolidation in Germany (and also in Central and Southern Europe)

The development of rural areas is given top-priority by the EC member states. There has been and still is a dangerous divide in terms of the pace of development between those areas, and urban agglomerations and periurban zones. This is chiefly a result of discrepancies in economic strength . To break down this divide, the capabilities of rural areas need to be maintained and strengthened, so that the population living there are not forced to migrate to urban areas when faced by the pressure of inadequate living conditions.

Agricultural objectives

Since agriculture remains to this day the most significant economic factor for more sparsely populated rural area, measure to improve the conditions of agricultural production are accorded high priority. One traditional means of achieving this is land consolidation:

• consolidation and development through new or improved rural road network
• restructuring of agricultural property on the basis of farming criteria
• soil amelioration, erosion control and drainage management measures are the most effective measurers to achieve viable land-use management of the numerous fragmented, poorly accessible parcels, which in are some cases either only extensively farmed or are no longer farmed at all.

Those farms facing acute pressure from foreign competition are crucially dependent on the result of rationalization brought about through land consolidation. The farmland lost daily also forces farmers to practice more intensive forms of agriculture on the remaining land.

Alongside this prime task of land consolidation, the development of rural areas since the second World War has also presented land consolidation, with other, almost equally important tasks.

Spatial planning and infrastructure

Today more than ever before, many of the practical problems of spatial planning which arise in the development of rural areas can only be solved establishing to the satisfaction of all by comprehensively restructuring defined areas within the framework of land consolidation measure.

This is especially true for infrastructure measures requiring additional land, in particular transport and drainage measures. As a rule, road for construction and development, drainage measures, the creation of landfills needs. etc., create a need to reclaim farmland. They conflict with the existing agricultural structure, and rural road network and drainage system.

Only a fundamental restructuring of the entire affected area can produce a solution satisfactory both to the authorities and to the affected farmers.

Local and village development

To bring about an optimal improvement in living conditions in rural areas, it is necessary today to include in planning considerations the built-up areas within villages, and village outskirts. If the preliminary studies to determine to the objectives and boundaries of the land consolidation measure, initiated upon its institution, indicate the agricultural reconstruction will also involve the village and its outskirts, these zones can be included either partially or entirely in the project.

A village development plan will be drawn up, showing the land reallotment and construction activities which are feasible within the scope of land consolidation measure, and making recommendations regarding further building development, improvement of transport infrastructure, rehabilitation housing stock and landscape planning.

The land consolidation plan will also include the legal and financial framework guaranteeing the feasibility of the land consolidation activities.

Landscape management

To an increasing extent, Germany's high population density and constraining need to intensify agriculture are threatening and negatively impacting on nature and the landscape, which includes both the natural resources of soil, fauna, and the landscape as a whole.

Land consolidation offers an opportunity to meet ecological need by establishing a network of both large and small protected areas. The maintenance and where necessary, management of the landscape has become an integral part of land consolidation planning.

Large area of land consolidation can also be made available to the public for recreational purposes, creating leisure facilitates in line with local needs.

To summaries, land consolidation or probably the most effective element of spatial planning to shape the countryside such as to meet the needs of the future.

Additional tasks in the former German Democratic Republic

The changes in land laws resulting from German reunification led to the passing of an agricultural adjustment law, in order to create the necessary legal framework for the task in hand.

The task it defines are:

• the division, merger and transformation of agricultural cooperatives
• the dissolution and withdrawal of individual members from agricultural cooperatives
• the drawing up of legal arrangement governing land and structures/trees etc., in cases where rights of ownership rest with more than one party.

The agricultural adjustment law is designed not only to provide arrangements for special cases, but also to simplify and speed up the implementation of measures to the land consolidation law.