Regional Workshop on Land Tenure and Land Consolidation
Land Banks and Impact Assessment
Prague, Czech Republic
22-26 June 2008
The regional workshop on land tenure and land consolidation in the context of land banks and impact assessment was held in June 2008 in Prague. It was sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Czech Republic, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The 2008 Regional Workshop built on the foundation laid by earlier regional workshops on land consolidation and it is part of FAO's programme to assist countries to develop responses to their problems of land fragmentation and adverse rural conditions. It provided an opportunity for senior officials responsible for land consolidation and rural development in countries of the region, particularly from CIS countries, to learn about land banking and impact assessment. It helped to reinforce and consolidate the knowledge gained by participants in the series of workshops since 2005, and to strengthen the peer network of professionals who are responsible for implementing land consolidation across the region.
The 2008 workshop was based on the following two technical topics:
 Land banking as an instrument for efficient land administration and land consolidation.
Methodologies for monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment of land consolidation
The first technical session introduced the principle of land banking and key-experts provided their experience with this instrument. Several countries in Europe (e.g. The Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Portugal and Spain) have introduced different systems of "land banks" in support of land consolidation. This session provided a much needed update on the developments that were reported at the 2004 FAO workshop in Tonder, Denmark: many more countries are now ready to consider land banking as part of their land consolidation efforts.
The second technical session gave an overview of different methodologies for evaluating the impact of land consolidation, whereas the initial work in land consolidation has been on introducing pilot projects where the primary emphasis was on developing and testing approaches and identifying problems and solutions. As countries move towards longer-term programmes of land consolidation, the evaluation of the impact becomes more important. While senior officials in land agencies now have a good understanding of land consolidation, politicians often do not. It is important for land agencies to develop the body of economic, social and environmental evidence to ensure support for programmes. It is also important to develop effective messages for landowners to explain the benefits and implications of land consolidation.
Participants came from Albania, Armenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Serbia, Ukraine and UNMIK Kosovo. Technical sessions were led by specialists from Denmark, Galicia (Spain), Portugal, and the Netherlands under the overall guidance of FAO.
The workshop's objectives were to:
Inform on land banking as an instrument for efficient land administration and land consolidation and on methodologies for monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment of land consolidation;
Inform on recent lessons learned when implementing land consolidation in the region and exchange positive and negative experiences;
Strengthen the peer network of land administration professionals in Central and Eastern Europe who are responsible for implementing land consolidation projects.
Each country prepared a written case study and made a presentation at the workshop on recent activities and priorities for the future. The experiences of more advanced countries were helpful to the countries that are just starting land consolidation initiatives.
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