Success Factors of Land Reform and Sustainable Rural Development: History Background and Tendencies

Abstract

Success factors of the of land reforms and sustainable development of the rural areas. Ownership and use of land resources has a dynamic and increasing tendency towards the concentration of land by certain state and public institutions as well as individuals in the historical aspect. It leads to the enrichment of the small monopolists and the poverty of the village. Usually, when a critical limit of conflict will be reached, it should be resolved by state reforms. From the second half of the 19th century, on the territory of today’s Ukraine there were three significant land reforms. First two are the reforms in 1848 in Austrian-Hungary, and Stolypin reform of 1906–1907. Their purpose and solutions can be directly related to the land reform that has started in the beginning of 1991 in Ukraine. Until now, this reform has not yet been fully implemented. It causes a number of progressive prods, connected primarily with the land market. The moratorium on the sale of agricultural land does stands in the way of land mortgages, land capital, investment attractiveness, issues related to land protection, soil fertility conservation, land use optimization, excessive use, land reclamation, and the development of small and medium-sized agricultural producers. Small and large villages have been disappearing, the problems of preserving forests, reservoirs, and biological diversity has been worsening. Certain risks can be seen in the newly amalgamated territorial communities as there is a high dependence between the number of village councils and villages. There are different models of land reforms applied in the world. European models of land reform, particularly Polish and French models are the most suitable in the light of current situation in Ukraine. The model of the harmonious development of rural areas, covering about 90% of the entireterritory of the country, should be based on the paradigm of sustainable development. In Europe, three major models of rural development have emerged: sectoral based on the development of agriculture; redistribution, which involves the reduction of discrepancies between the more underdeveloped rural areas and advance industries and the territorial (cluster) model that implies the development of the rural territories is carried out on the basis of the corresponding interdependencies within the local economy. There five models of rural development in Ukraine at the current stage: sectoral (intersectoral); redistributive; cluster; model, focused on the village, that entails priority given to meet the needs of the specific territory and local tradition preservation; and finally, the mixed, based on several components of the different models, mainly sectoral and cluster. Education, professional enhancement, spirituality and Christian ethics, citizens’ activism and civic society development also belongs to the crucial factors for the sustainable development of rural areas.