Access to information on land is, in many ways, a form of power. The lack of open data at the European and national levels on land sales, prices and ownership benefits players that have more resources or social connections to access land. It also hampers action by public actors and citizens. Local authorities can both generate and share more data on land and agriculture.

Generating data to catalyse action

As a local authority, you may commission studies and/or generate data yourself. You may also act as a facilitator if other actors are looking for information to support their actions. Gathering information will depend on your objectives, which should be clearly defined to orient more precise surveys.

Examples of objective-based data gathering on land and how local authorities can help

Democratising access to data on land and agriculture

If access to data on land is restricted or difficult, local authorities can work on making more accessible the information they have (sometimes because they play a role in administering land registries or sometimes because they have access to some databases – e.g. for taxation purposes – that regular citizens cannot consult). A few ideas to make land data more readily available are listed below.

• Create land observatories

Monitor the land situation: register plots up for sale or lease and prices. Information can be collated through websites, an online map, or just made available upon request. Other data from specific surveys (on land quality, pollution, etc.), and land zoning information can be made available in such a centralised place to facilitate access. In France, it is regional land agencies (SAFER) that hold such information on land. Several examples exist of local authorities establishing partnerships with SAFER to facilitate the compilation of data.

→ See more on centralising information to match land offers and land demands in Zoom box on “Land banks in Spain” (See intermediate section)

Good idea! Participative land mapping

You can foster multi-stakeholder processes to increase knowledge on existing farms and identify key issues (land available for farm succession, abandoned land, fragmented land, etc.). Some ways to proceed:

• Convene public meetings with stakeholders from one area, put up a map and see whether popular knowledge can help better identify the owners of the parcels and qualify their uses;

• Or wear your boots and survey the area with mixed groups of volunteers. You can identify types of crops, water resources, existing infrastructure, and more. Distribute sheets to the volunteers to gather information (see and example in the “how to get started” section).

→ See more tools on surveying land in the how to get started section

• Create a one-stop-shop for new entrants

Work on a simple strategy to welcome new farmers, and communicate about the fact that you are a new farmer-friendly town. Centralise basic information for new entrants on who to contact in your authority, existing services, resources on accessible land and land rights, and other things to meet their needs (e.g. information on housing, cooperatives for equipment sharing, list of commercial outlets for agricultural products, ways to access subsidies, etc.). Local authorities can in addition link new entrants with retiring farmers to access land and/or with organisations to support them.

→ See more about facilitating these relationships in the “Intermediate” section.

• Make information accessible to citizens

Collectives of citizens or non-profits are mobilising in different countries to protect land threatened by urbanisation, enable agroecology and new farmers, protect landscapes, and carry out other land actions. Local authorities can provide low-investment support to volunteers by sharing the data they have (on farmland that needs protective actions) and providing a platform to meet (e.g. a meeting room, connections to other actors).

Lively markets, typical landscapes, specific food artisanship… The “identity” of an area is often connected, in part, to its agriculture. Raising awareness to defend the local natural and social richness is a legitimate and important area of action for local authorities. To promote access to land, they can in particular target private landowners. They can further encourage agroecology by raising local support from citizens.

Raising awareness of landowners

Whether or not local governments own and act on public land (see section Acting as an owner...), working with private landowners is a complementary dimension to making more hectares available for agroecology and new farmers.

Whether or not they still have a direct link with agricultural activity, landowners may be sensitive to questions of long-term land stewardship, local food production, and sustainability, particularly if public actors themselves send clear messages and make strong decisions to protect agricultural spaces.

Campaigning to encourage landowners to rent out their land

Good idea! Target private landowning institutions

In some countries, churches, hospitals, universities and other institutions hold large tracts of land. These private owners can be targeted to lease out land for specific uses and users, which may yield a large impact for minimum engagement. Charitable institutions in particular can be sensitive to using land to provide public goods.

Raising awareness of citizens

Local authorities can create a support base for agroecological farming and increase local food demand through educational campaigns for citizens. They can also generate heightened interest and scrutiny on land use and public support for bold land policies.

A holistic policy can also associate actions by the local authority to link up priority land users and those who can support them. This is in particular the case with landowners and retiring farmers who control land that could be made available to agroecological farmers.

A huge amount of land is about to change hands in Europe. With a third (32%) of farm managers in the EU aged 65 years or more (Eurostat 2018), and many farms without designated successors, there is an urgent need to ensure that farmland is transferred to sustainable users. Furthermore, non-farming landowners should also be part of the conversation to lease land to specific users. Local authorities can provide skills and mediation to support extra-family land leases or transfers.

Linking up retiring farmers/landowners and potential users

Especially if you are a small municipality and know your constituents well, you can individually check on farmers nearing retirement age. Ask them how they see the future, if they have plans for the farm, and whether they have an identified successor. You can tell them if you know of young people interested in farming in the area. The goal is to counterbalance natural social links between established farmers who already know each other and the likelihood that a farmer without an identified successor will sell the land to a neighbour or existing farm.

Local authorities are first-hand witnesses of changing landscapes and land dynamics. They observe what type of agriculture is practised in their area, land transfers and who they benefit, trends in urban sprawl and land prices, and so on. By gathering and centralising information on this, they can catalyse action towards better local land stewardship. Local governments also have the necessary legitimacy, knowledge of stakeholders, and convening powers to coordinate efforts, organise local dialogue and connect actors on agriculture, food, and land issues. Encouraging more open governance of land can be a powerful lever to:

• fight opacity on land transfers and market dynamics that favour larger farms;

• connect actors that do not know each other, and create more synergies for access to land;

• co-construct decisions that affect land, and therefore create co-responsibility with local owners, farmers, inhabitants to steward the land;

• rebalance power by opening decision processes to people or organisations that do not traditionally take part in institutional processes that affect land;

• increase the awareness and skills of people/organisations that own or manage land;

• support organisations or projects that aim to protect farmland or provide access to it for disadvantaged groups.

Local authorities work every day in concert with other levels of government and local stakeholders. They have convening power due to their status as decision-makers, actors working for the public good, and implementers of collective aspirations and projects. They can use this position to organise concerted planning, dialogue and cooperation on land.

Organise coherent public action

Working on land requires combining different domains of public action. Organising collaboration between the services that deal with questions of habitat, environment, economy, urban planning or agriculture is key to bringing coherence in land policy and unlocking results. This can be achieved through a culture of regular meetings and cooperation, backed by clear and strong policy goals. Transparency of data and mapping is also helpful here to engage teams from across the authority. In addition, inter-services collaboration is better enabled by a creative organisational structure involving mixed teams, agile thematic work groups, external experts, and other ways to increase mutual understanding and establish new work habits.

Our service covers issues related to agriculture, forestry, biodiversity and mountains. So structurally, it has a fairly transversal dimension. Moreover, to reinforce cross-overs, this service is integrated into the land use planning pole, so that every Monday I am in discussion with the habitat and land division of the authority." - Lilian Vargas, Director of the Service for Agriculture, Forest, Biodiversity and Mountain. Grenoble Alpes Métropole, France

Political backing for technical officers working on land is key, and vice-versa as implementation capacity is needed to carry out the political vision. An efficient officials/staff duo often makes a difference in the outcome of a dedicated land policy. You can also appeal to and cultivate a relationship with individuals who have multiple hats (e.g. a local authority staff member who is also involved in a local association, a council member who is also a farmer, etc.) to build a better capacity to understand and translate issues to different circles.

Finally, acting jointly with other nearby local authorities will enable coordinated support to farmers, joint management of land and nature (waterways, wetlands, etc.), and pooling political weight and means to realise your goals. Groupings of municipalities, for instance, can be the right level to hire a food or biodiversity officer with a perimeter of action larger than a single municipality.

We collaborate with municipalities that share the river. It is our goal to promote exchanges between neighbouring municipalities to connect the nature between our territories and create a strategic plan for this collaboration that tackles mutual rural concerns, such as access to land, farming, housing, tourism." - Yolanda Ruiz, Environment and social services councillor. Santa Maria de Miralles Municipality, Spain

--> Learn more about collaborating on public land with other public owners (see "" subsection).

Organise democratic dialogue on land

Opening the dialogue on land use can raise opposition from those who have more control over land markets (e.g. established farmers, corporate players, customary institutions…). This handbook suggests some gradual ways to give more space to the expression of a multiplicity of voices in land governance so as to rebalance power and create a more collective responsibility around the fate of farmland in your area.

It is important to understand the power relations and interactions at place and to address all actor groups and take their specific roles into account. It is important to foster a network of all actor groups for initiating a process towards a local agricultural policy.” - Frieder Thomas, Managing Director at AgrarBündnis e.V., Konstanz, Germany

Some suggestions to catalyse more democratic dialogue on land include:

• Carry out a public survey on priorities. Ask for direct opinions from your constituents through a survey or voting process to decide on land actions. This will have many advantages, in particular: a clear direction, legitimacy, and increased interest and implication from your constituents.

• Create a municipal commission on land or agriculture. Involve farmers, associations, and volunteer citizens in acting as receptors of demands related to agriculture and proposing solutions to elected officials. This commission can also be the contact point for farmers and new entrants and encharged of connecting stakeholders together, which will increase your capacity to both be aware of local needs and to meet them.

• Carry out consultation in the establishment of policies affecting land. Whether you are updating the land zoning, creating a food strategy, or taking decisions to reduce pollution and manage risks, you can choose to diversify opinions consulted (going beyond the bodies traditionally involved in these processes). Through workshops, interviews, impact studies, for instance, you can incorporate feedback from beneficiary groups, land experts, consumers, and other relevant stakeholders.

• Introduce land issues in existing participative/consultation circles. If you have existing committees – e.g. for rural development, for water management, etc. – or meetings – e.g. annual hearings, thematic public meetings –, you can propose to make farmland a more frequent topic on their agenda or pass along information on how the actions of specific committees may affect land dynamics.

• Introduce more transparency about public action. To make citizens feel involved and take part more readily in policy processes about land, it is important to increase trust with local communities. Quality of government including transparency about the use of funds, accountability in following up on decisions, and result or indicator-based public action is sometimes a prerequisite for a more democratic dialogue on land.

Public consultations can be conflictual or seen as a place where constituencies express their dissatisfaction. You can consider different methods for consulting: reaching out to individuals, or groups of peers, or relying on “go-between” actors (who have multiple hats and/or a good knowledge both of the local actors and your local authorities’ goals). Consulting farmers is a priority, but in doing so a local authority must keep in mind the interests of larger, traditional farmers can be more audible and better represented than those of smaller ‘alternative’ farmers. Seeking the voices of “want-to-be'' farmers – future new entrants in agriculture – is also important if your projects are directed at them.