Property Restructuring in Denmark – a Method for Achieving the Objectives of Environmental Protection and Cultural Heritage

Authors

• Anne Kristine Munk Mouritsen

Keywords:

agrarian landscape, environmental and cultural heritage factors, planning, changes in land use, land consolidation

Abstract

Today’s agrarian landscape faces great pressures from groups seeking to change land use so that more consideration is accorded to social, environmental and cultural heritage factors. In Denmark, public actors have at their disposal two basic methods for the planning of rural areas to affect and implement active changes in land use: “The subsidy method” and “the property restructuring method”. “The subsidy method” entails paying financial support or compensation to motivate the owner or user of a land area to exhibit a desired behaviour, while “the property restructuring method” requires an analysis and assessment of the desired changes in the agrarian areas leading to a comprehensive restructuring of the property structures and, if necessary, a change in the legal status of the individual properties. In order to promote the use of the property restructuring method, the paper briefly presents a study with the aim of evaluating and improving it. Attention is paid to the identified lack of knowledge at the level of top authorities, local authorities and stakeholders, and to advantages of choosing “the property restructuring method”. The advantages can be seen both from the viewpoint of environment and public economics. Land use and property structure are interdependent; therefore property restructuring is an effective method to change land use.