Wanted: alternatives for program-driven land consolidation

Like many instruments for spatial policy, land consolidation has been subject to continuous modification since its legal emergence. Such modifications initially were optimisations of the procedure, with the intention to enhance the effectiveness of land consolidation in rationalising agriculture. But today, land consolidation faces challenges that are so profound that in some countries the system seems no longer appropriate to apply. The dynamics and complexity of society conflict with the original program-driven and top-down approach. Furthermore, the original procedures are too time-consuming compared to the pace of rural changes. Although spatial developments - in terms of population density and agricultural difficulties - are very much alike in the Netherlands and Germany, the modern challenges have a devastating effect on the Dutch system, whereas in German practice it seems to be business as usual. This difference is on the one hand understandable because the procedures are completely different. But it is also surprising because up to the 1990s the evolution of both countries' practices was identical. The comparison of the Dutch and German experiences presented in this paper exemplifies what elements in a procedure and what characteristics of rurality make land consolidation cope.