European good practices on land banking (partial)

  

 FOREWORD

Many countries in Western Europe have a long tradition of applying land banking as part of the integrated toolbox of land management instruments. As with land consolidation, the traditional purpose of land banking has been to support agriculture and rural development by reducing land fragmentation and facilitating the enlargement of farms. In Western Europe, the objectives of land banking have developed over the last decades, and today, in several countries, the instrument is applied in a multi-purpose approach together with land consolidation. In most countries, land banking shares the objectives of land consolidation, which in addition to continued agricultural development, supports the implementation of public projects in rural areas where private landowners and farmers are requested to give up agricultural land, for example, in connection with the construction of infrastructure projects such as highways and railways or for the implementation of public projects related to nature restoration, afforestation or climate change adaptation and mitigation.

In a few Western European countries, land banking is also applied on use rights, where a lease facilitation approach connects owners of agricultural land not using their land and often leaving it abandoned, with local farmers interested in farming more land.

This study first analyses and identifies good European practices on land banking, discusses experiences from the introduction of land banking instruments in countries in Central Europe. Finally, it provides policy recommendations for the introduction of land banking, with a focus on countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

 

This study was prepared through a Letter of Agreement with the Non-Profit Organization Financial Law Institute (VšĮ Finansų teisės institutas) and the FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia. The study was written by Tomas Veršinskas, Financial Law Institute, Morten Hartvigsen, Land Tenure Officer, FAO REU, and Maxim Gorgan, Land Tenure Officer, FAO REU.

Contributions related to land banking in specific jurisdictions were made by selected key experts from each of the countries analysed (in alphabetical order by country name): Ana Budanko Penavic from Croatia, Jaroslava Kosejková and Martin Vrba from the Czech Republic, Niels Haldrup from Denmark, Loïc Jegouzo from France, Volker Bruns, Katja Dells and Joachim Thomas from Germany, Velta Parsova, Ivars Rubenis and Mārtiņš Turks from Latvia, Gintautas Vasiliauskas from Lithuania, Jan Spijkerboer and Frank van Holst from the Netherlands, Bogdan Podgórski and Magdalena Zawadzka from Poland, Anka Lisec from Slovenia and Miguel Ángel Pérez Dubois and Cristina Zolle Fernández from Spain (Galicia).

Sabine Agofroy, Jesper Blaabjerg, Ildikó Buglyó, Ildikó Gyurász, Anna Zając-Plezia, Rokas Liaudinskas and Thomas Marcos have supported the preparation of the study through the provision and/or revision of the country-related information.

The study’s key findings were presented during an FAO organized LANDNET1 webinar on 11 December 2020, and feedback was collected from the webinar participants.

The full review of the draft study report was carried out by Aurelie Bres, Andrew Cartwright, David Egiashvili, Vladimir Evtimov, Niels Haldrup, Evelin Jürgenson, Kalle Konttinen, Kristina Mitic Arsova, Jan Spijkerboer, Joachim Thomas, Frank van Holst and Margret Vidar. Andrew Cartwright and Bradley Paterson supported the technical and language editing of the report.

Copy-editing and layout provided by Jessica Marasovic.

 ACRONYMS

AGADER	Axencia Galega de Desenvolvemento Rural (Galician Agency of Rural Development)
BBL	Bureau Beheer Landbouwgronden (Dutch Agricultural Land Management Office)
BVVG	Bodenverwertungs- und -verwaltungs GmbH
CEE	Central and Eastern Europe
CIS	Commonwealth of Independent States
DLG	Dienst Landelijk Gebied (former Dutch Government Service for Land and Water Management)
ECA	Europe and Central Asia
FAO	Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
FIG	International Federation of Surveyors
GIS	Geographic Information System
REU	FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia
RVO	Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland (Netherlands Enterprise Agency)
SAFER	Société d’aménagement foncier et d’établissement rural
UN	United Nations
UNECE WPLA	Working Party on Land Administration of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
VGGT	Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security

 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Many countries in Western Europe have a long tradition of applying land banking either alone or integrated with other land management instruments such as land consolidation. The importance of a comprehensive analysis and overview of good European land banking practices is strongly felt in several FAO programme countries in Europe and Central Asia (ECA).

This study aims to provide policy recommendations on land banking based on the identified good country practices from Western Europe. The study assessed land banking practices in Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain (Galicia) and reviewed land banking experiences in Central Europe, including in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovenia. In certain cases, the study also refers to selected land banking practices from other European countries.

The study pays close attention to the guidance laid out in the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT), endorsed by the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in May 2012. There is a specific section on land consolidation, land banking and other readjustment approaches in the VGGT (Paragraphs 13.2-13.4).

The analysis of the selected European countries has revealed that the major land banking approach applied in Western and Central Europe relates to the acquisition of private agricultural land by a public purpose entity (land bank), its interim management in the form of a short-term lease, and the subsequent sale or exchange of land. This activity is performed to meet various public purpose objectives such as the development of farm structures, address land abandonment and support development of infrastructure or implementation of environmental measures.

The facilitation of lease was identified as a second major approach to land banking applied in a number of European countries (France, Italy, Portugal and Spain). While lease facilitation and its objectives vary from country to country, the main aspect is that the public purpose entity (land bank) facilitates the conclusion of lease contracts between landowners not using their agricultural land and active farmers interested in farming more land.

Furthermore, the analysis has demonstrated that land banks may have a range of additional functions, such as the management of state-owned agricultural land and privatization of state- owned agricultural land.

The study has demonstrated that the land banking approach based on the acquisition, interim management and sale/exchange of land is prevailing in the studied Western European countries, often in support of land consolidation projects, and is also applied in some of the Central European countries like the Czech Republic, Latvia and Slovenia. The introduction of land banking in Central Europe was successful only in a few of the aforementioned countries and the instrument is yet in an evolutionary stage.

The study recommends that ECA countries assess the possibility of introducing land banking in their land management systems and underlines the importance of linking it with other land management instruments, such as land consolidation. It assesses the potential benefits of introducing land banking in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and identifies the related risks.

The study recommends introducing the two major approaches of land banking (based on transfer of ownership rights or facilitation of lease agreements) and provides for additional functions that could be assigned to the land banks. It recommends establishing the relevant institutional and legal framework based on clear land banking objectives and its integration into the national land policy.

The study recommends combining land banking with land consolidation where feasible, and suggests that land banks would have the right to perform land banking operations with the state-owned agricultural land, when this is feasible in the country-specific context, including through its privatization to implement broader agricultural policy and development objectives. The study also recommends a set of safeguards, aiming to ensure that the land banking process is fully transparent, not misused and best serves the interests of the society.