Land consolidation and land readjustment are the most comprehensive of all land tenure instruments. They are applied for the development of rural areas for the elimination of deficiencies in the agrarian structure considering the existing ownership and for matching the land use pattern with the land tenure structure.

Land consolidation and land readjustment have supported the changes in agrarian structure in the West European countries (with the exception of Great Britain) since the end of the last century. Partner countries with considerable deficiencies in agrarian structure in regions where there are primarily smallholders and where advice for participatory local approaches for solutions are demanded are showing increasing interest (Larsson 1993). Germany has about 100 years of experience with the legal and technical aspects of land consolidation (see, for example, Land Consolidation Act, FRG ArgeFlurb 1988, Thöne 1995).

• Regulates the use of land on the basis of a land use and infrastructure plan agreed upon by all affected institutions and serves to reconcile the interests of regional development, land use planning and those of the individual land owners;

• Eliminates the deficiency in the agrarian structure such as the fragmentation of property and the poor development of the project area; thus it fundamentally increases the productivity;

• Regulates the ownership, user and protective rights to land and water and contributes considerably to settling conflicts of use and for harmonization of interests;

• Mobilizes the change in structure additionally through project-related land banking, lease regulations and efficient regulations for avoiding expropriation in the public's interest such as for the construction of infrastructure and protected areas;

• Guarantees democratic rules for the active participation of the target group as individuals and as a mutually supportive group (participants in the association);

• Makes a diverse range of land readjustment processes available for the different challenges in rural areas which include the voluntary exchange of land, simplified types of land consolidation and the comprehensive readjustment of the planning area;

• Creates a comprehensive legal and organizational context for those land development and infrastructure planning measures which have a far-reaching intervention in the ownership structure such as the following:

Development cooperation has had experience with simplified and less expensive methods in Portugal and Indonesia.