Land consolidation in the context of Lithuanian rural development and revitalization

Abstract

This thesis investigates the actual situation in the rural areas of Lithuania, one of the Central and Eastern European countries which, after the collapse of the Soviet regime, started a programme of land reform and today faces problems such as land fragmentation, land abandonment, lack of infrastructure, land conflicts, etc. Such problems affecting sustainable rural development can be solved by applying a land management instrument – land consolidation that has worked successfully for hundreds of years in Western European countries. Since 2000, Lithuania with the support of international land consolidation experts, has dealt with this instrument and supplemented that legal framework in 2004. Unfortunately this instrument still doesn’t assure results compared with Western European countries. In order to identify aspects influencing comprehensive results, an investigation of the legal frameworks regulating land consolidation in six selected European countries was performed by analysing scientific papers, legal acts and interviewing land consolidation experts. Seeking to obtain a comprehensive Lithuanian land consolidation process picture, a case study analysis was applied and interviews with participating land owners and land surveyors as well as the online questionnaire for municipal specialists were performed. Moreover, based on European expert’s practice reflected in the online questionnaire, criteria showing the potential for comprehensive land consolidation in Lithuania (at municipal and project area scale) were developed and techniques based on Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis offered. The most significant part of this thesis is a developed framework for how to reach sustainable rural areas (re)development through land consolidation in Lithuanian and other Central and Eastern European countries. Developed criteria showing the potential for comprehensive land consolidation and framework provides the main original contribution to new knowledge by benefiting policy makers, land management authorities, land surveyors, the academic and professional community and rural communities on both a national and international scale.