Land Mobility in a Central and Eastern European Land Consolidation Context

In most of the Central and Eastern European countries, land reforms after 1989 have resulted in extensive land fragmentation. The majority of the countries have during the two recent decades introduced land consolidation instruments to address the structural problems with land fragmentation and small farm sizes through donor funded projects with international technical assistance. The approach has normally been voluntary and low land mobility in the project areas has often been a constraint. It is the aim of this paper to explore the problems and possible solutions related to low land mobility in a Central and Eastern European land consolidation context. The term land mobility is defined and the limited theory available is reviewed. Case studies of land mobility in land consolidation pilot projects in Moldova, Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina show the correlation between land mobility and the success or failure of voluntary land consolidation projects. In situations with low land mobility, land consolidation instruments need in order to be successful to be supported by other land policy tools such as land banks. The use of existing state agricultural land is an obvious foundation for establishing a state land bank