rearrangement of the real rights on real estate of the
land-owners and the land users. This comes under what
is previously defined as disposing of real rights on real
estate. Therefore in the process of land-consolidation
great care has to be bestowed on the rights of the land
owners and the land-users. In connection with this aspect
legislation provides procedures to guarantee the protec
tion of the rights of the parties concerned. In spite of these
guarantees, however, the process of land-consolidation
and particularly the process of the redistribution of the
land, the so-called re-allocation, has to be conducted by
experts in the field of real estate.
I think that it is particularly for this reason that in the
Netherlands the Cadastre and therefore the geodesists
are closely involved in land-consolidation from the very
beginning some 60 years ago. The cadastral surveyor
combines surveying with juridical knowledge.
When land-consolidation started the only objective was
the improvement of the agrarian conditions. This was
mainly reached by re-allocation of the land and also more
and more by improvement of the water management
and of the accessibility of the parcels and by means of
rural engineering activities.
Today land-consolidation has become a so-called multi
functional instrument for the development of the rural
areas. Besides on behalf of agriculture and horticulture,
measures are taken for the sake of improvement of the
landscape, nature and landscape conservation, open-air
recreation, improvement of the infrastructure and pre
servation of objects of cultural-historical importance.
Gradually land-consolidation has become rural land
development and the main aims of rural land develop
ment are reduction of regional lags in income and work
ing conditions in agriculture and horticulture, the con
tribution to urbanization policy (in town-surrounding
areas and rural areas that undergo strong urban influen
ces), the improvement of the landscape, nature and
landscape conservation and the improvement of the
living conditions in the rural area. Our forthcoming rural
land development act, which will come into force pro
bably next year, provides that the aim of rural land
development is to make parts of the rural area more
suitable for the purposes assigned to them in physical
planning.
Magnitude of rural land development activities and or
ganizing aspects
From the political point of view the Minister of Agricul
ture and Fisheries is responsible for rural land develop
ment in the Netherlands. The general management of
the rural land development projects is in the hands of the
Central Agricultural Committee. This national commit
tee is of mixed composition, comprising public-service
and civil representatives. The Central Committee, as it is
called, is assisted in its task by the Government Service
for Rural Land Development of the Ministry of Agricul
ture and Fisheries.
Rural land development is realized by carrying out rural
land development projects for parts of the rural area.
Each project is implemented by a committee composed
of local representatives, the so-called Local Committee.
These committees are supported by several government
services, among which the Service for Rural Land Deve
lopment and the Cadastre are the most important ones.
These two services work very closely together. The Ser
vice for Rural Land Development (with 800 employees) is
responsible for the overall planning, the rural engineer
ing and the financial affairs. The Cadastre (over 600
employees in the concerning department) takes care of
the provision of the real estate data, draws up the re
allocation plan and arranges the formal procedure. The
engineering measures are carried out by contractors.
At the end of last year there were about 70 projects for an
area of 372 000 hectares in preparation and about 90
projects for an area of 548000 hectares were under
construction. In the previous years land-consolidation
has been completed for an area of 800 000 hectares.
Almost the entire country of the Netherlands is involved
in land-consolidation or rural land development; in gen
eral only the large nature reserve „Veluwe" and the new
polders are not included.
In a recent government plan, indicating the rural land
development policy in the long run and its physical
planning aspects, it is foreseen that another 700 000
hectares of the rural area need to be developed with
respect to the aims of rural land development as men
tioned before. The average size of a project is about 6 000
hectares and its completion takes about 13 years. The
average time needed for the preparation of a project
(drawing up of the overall plan) is about 8 years. These
long terms are not benificial to the popularity of the
instrument of rural land development and attempts have
been made to shorten these terms. So far not very suc-
cesfully. Because of the multi-functional character of
rural land development, the projects are very complica
ted and I think that keeping the size of the projects small,
will be the best remedy.
In the late sixties and early seventies land-consolidation
projects with in all an area of 55000 hectares came into
execution each year. Due to budget problems this had to
be reduced to 40 000 hectares per annum nowadays. The
1982 budget of the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries
provides in an expenditure of D.fl. 400 million including
the costs of personnel.
Legislation
The first land-consolidation act in the Netherlands dates
from 1924. The current land-consolidation act is the third
one and dates from 1954. Although present land-consoli
dation projects fit quite well into modern multi-functional
rural land development policy, it was felt necessary to
revise legislation substantially in order to answer the
needs of society, to improve the procedures that already
had been developed and to get a better legal basis for
these procedures.
In 1977 two special rural land development acts came
into force for the development of two areas with particu
lar problems, namely „Midden Delfland" (an area in the
most crowded part of the Netherlands that undergoes
strong urban influences) and „East Groningen and the
Groningen - Drente Peat Colonies" (an area facing seri
ous economic problems).
In november 1979 the rural land development bill was
introduced to the parliament. The two special acts are to
be considered as precursors of this more general bill. The
main reasons in fact for the introduction of a new act
were:
-the necessity to broaden the legal aims of rural land
development;
-the necessity of having rural land development and
physical planning better co-ordinated;
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