Land consolidation: A comparative research between Europe and China

Land consolidation (LC), as an effective instrument to relieve rural land issues and promote rural sustainability, has already attracted the attention of the Chinese government and academia. Some Chinese scholars have proposed strategies to promote the development of LC by investigating cases in European countries and comparing them with that in China. However, the introduction of LC in Europe as a whole and China has not been done systematically from a comparative perspective. This paper aims to offer a broader view of the development of LC in China and Europe and identify points for improvement based on the current Chinese political system and European experience. Given the special sociocultural background of Europe, it has been divided into Central, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe in the comparison and analysis. The comparison of LC, therefore, was conducted from the aspects of historical background, political will, legislation, procedure, and public participation. This is the first attempt to compare LC between Europe as a whole and China in literature. It identifies reasons behind the differences between China and Europe, and considers possible lessons that China might learn from the experience of LC in Europe. Based on these, the paper puts forward some countermeasures and suggestions for the development of LC in China.