access to land

Latest from Brussels

A European Land Observatory – What’s In Sight?

May 7, 2025 Oliver Moore

Despite moves towards simplification, a Land Observatory is coming this summer. What’s more, there is broad consensus from both the Commission and farming organisations on the need for some more harmonised monitoring of land transactions. But how much power will – or should – such an Observatory have? What will it try to do? And which tools are in place at national and regional level? Oliver Moore takes us through the terrain. […]

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Bosnia and Herzegovina | Who Owns Agricultural Land?

April 29, 2025 Katarina Kušić

“Who owns agricultural land” is never an easy question. In post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina, multi-layer governance adds another dimension of complexity. Farmland is disappearing as landscapes—and the people living in them—are reshaped by drawn out processes of refugee return and restitutions, and new forms of extractivism. Dr Katarina Kušić and Z. V. explain how the Bosnian War of 1992-1995 continues to cast a shadow over land use. […]

Latest from EU Member States

The Food Sovereignty Scandal Made in France

March 5, 2025 ARC

France has more than enough land to feed its inhabitants. Yet almost half of French farmland serves the global export trade. Food sovereignty will remain a pipe dream as long as the absurd globalised food system continues to hold sway, says a new report by Terre de Liens. The Rural Resilience project reports from the launch event in Paris. […]

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Czech Republic | Fifty Years To Pay For A Farm

November 25, 2024 Terezie Daňková

A rural European gathering is a special moment. A time for those working on the ground in different territories and regions to compare notes on common challenges at local level, and reflect on European solutions. Access to land is increasingly a barrier for aspiring farmers across Europe, even as an ageing generation of farmers often fails to find a successor. At our European gathering in Plessé in 2022, Czech farmer Terezie Daňková realised how pervasive this issue is in other EU member states. […]

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The Case for a Land Observatory in Ireland

May 1, 2024 Daniel Long

Quite quickly, Ireland has seen the kind of land concentration more familiar in other parts of Europe. Various pressures are coming to bare on access to land, including the desires of the very wealthy to build up an asset bank. Daniel Long is a young dairy farmer from south Tipperary, which has seen hugely inflated prices paid by billionaires for land. What impact does this have, including on how young people and their future in farming? Long also outlines the beginnings of a campaign to draw attention to this issue, while making the case for a Land Observatory in Ireland.          […]

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Access to Land: More Resilient Agriculture – Without Any EU Legislation? (Part 2)

September 27, 2023 Marie-Lise Breure-Montagne

What levers do France and Germany have for adapting land policies to regional and local realities? After looking at regional public policies, consider the work of Terre de Liens in France and Regionalwert-AG in Germany, which are working to make farmland available for new entrants and agricultural renewal in these two major European countries. […]

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Rural Realities | Feet on the Ground in the Battle for Land

October 10, 2022 ARC

Access to land was the topic of a panel discussion at our rural resilience gathering in north-west France last week. To add to the conversation, we present our findings from research on the ground, over the past two years of the “Nos Campagnes en Résilience” project. In the first of a series on hot topics around transition, we look at land, water and soil – all pivotal issues for socio-ecological transition. Analysis by “Nos Campagnes en Résilience” team. […]

Main stories

UK | The Grassroots Groups Shifting Ground on Land Justice

July 22, 2022 Ursula Billington

The racialised history of British soil has consequences that are very much felt today. However where industrial scale farming is failing, the grassroots is doing what it does best, building fertile ground for a new food system that nurtures diversity. High-profile agroecology events such as this weekend’s Land Skills Fair are spotlighting land justice. This is thanks to the work of many projects that together are gradually shifting the ground for land justice. Ursula Billington reports. […]

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Hungary | The Last Smallholders Part III

February 28, 2022 Péter József Bori

Rural Hungary has been Viktor Orbán’s ticket to three terms in power. With the April 2022 elections approaching, is there a chance for emancipation from authoritarian populist rule to arise from this very same countryside? Drawing on original research, Péter József Bori and Noémi Gonda argue that by reforming our ways of producing food, we can also initiate a radical reform of the undemocratic systems that govern us. Final installment of an exclusive three-part series. […]

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Hungary | The Last Smallholders Part II

February 22, 2022 Péter József Bori

Our second installment here explains how Orbán and his FIDESZ party backtracked on their promises after their election in 2010. What followed is a decade of land grabbing, destructive agricultural transformation and the alienation of Hungary’s last smallholders – all while maintaining the image of a pro-peasant government. Original research by Péter József Bori and Noémi Gonda. […]

Latest from EU Member States

Hungary | The Last Smallholders Part I

February 15, 2022 Péter József Bori

In Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, the rural vote will have a crucial role to play in the upcoming April elections. Orbán has been milking farmers’ grievances for over a decade. Have the nation’s smallholders had enough? Revealing the findings of new research, Péter József Bori and Noémi Gonda track the progress of feudal dynamics in the Hungarian countryside. First in a three-part series. […]