Access to Land

"New Ways of Access to Land for Community Connected Farming" documents innovative forms of land access for farms that produce and sell locally, engage in ecological farming practices and provide integrated services to the community. It also promotes a better understanding of land issues as a major obstacle to the development of local, ecological agriculture. Partner initiatives are mostly from Western Europe (UK, Germany, Italy, France, Belgium...) with some partners and contacts in Eastern Europe (Lithuania, Romania, Hungary).

State of the art: Project started in July 2010, finished in December 2011. In 2012, the work continues with networking and exchange of experiences between citizen initiatives of access to land thoughout Europe.

Partner: Terre de Liens (France).

Results: It has resulted in a mapping of close to 100 innovative initiatives, which are described and located on the following map:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=fr&msa=0&msid=107996440332808481570.000490b1b6b8f68f0c7de&ll=51.944265,6.855469&spn=21.461647,54.140625&z=4

One of the results has been the realization of seven case studies quite diverse but all illustrating how new relationships between farmers, consumers and territories can be invented. They all study the land dimension, either to show the difficulties of access to land in Eastern Europe (Viva sol, farm Jaglea), either to illustrate the experiences of mobilization of land for the maintenance of a peri-urban agriculture (occupation land in Italy near Rome, mobilization of communal lands in Hamburg), either to show innovative citizen initiatives of access to land (Tablehurst and Plaw Hatch Community Farm, Regionalwert AG, Terre de Liens).

NEW! The new Access to Land website was launched . The initiative is calling itself a "European network of grassroots organisations securing land for agroecological farming". The new website provides information and also offers online entries for sharing information on experiences and practices.

Documents related to this thematic exchange

Success stories:

• AGROECOPOLIS - A young grassroots network for Agroecology, Food Sovereignty & Access to Land in Greece
• [EXP] Agricultura Nuova, a multifunctional Cooperative Farm integrated in its territory in the periphery of Rome (Italy).
• [EXP] Buying collectively farmland: how Terre de Liens encourages the access to land and settlement of organic and peasant farmers in France.
• [EXP] Kulturland eG: a farmers - consumers cooperative
• [EXP] Regionalwert AG: citizen capital for a regional organic food economy
• [EXP] Tablehurst and Plaw Hatch Community Farms, an example of biodynamic farm businesses owned by 600 local shareholders.(East Sussex, UK)
• [EXP] The Jaglea family farm, seeking sustainability at the crossroad of tradition and innovation in the Carpathian, Romania.
• [EXP] Viva sol Lithuania, an association of cheese eaters and producers that encourages the settlement of small farmers and artisans in rural Lithuania.
• [EXP] Viva sol, une association de producteurs fromagers et de consommateurs urbain pourun soutien à l’agriculture artisanale et à l’installation en milieu rural.

Documents:

• Conference Report: Community Connected Farms for Tomorrow: New Ways of Land Access for Communities and Farmers
• European Farm Succession: tools and methods to promote a successful farm succession
• European Handook on Community Supported Agriculture
• Farming activity test in France
• Ideas for farm transmission
• Local authorities supporting access to land for farmers: stories from Europe
• Mapping of experiences related to Access to land for Community-Connected Farming
• People’s Manual on the Guidelines on Governance of Land, Fisheries and Forests
• Study: Liberating the fields - land markets and new forms of ownership in organic farming
• Your land, My land, Our land : grassroots strategies to preserve farmland and access to land for peasant farming and agroecology