Land management professionals tend to agree, that, taking into consideration the results and effects of land reforms (land fragmentation, abandonment of land, etc.) in different CEEC and CIS countries, there is an increasing recognition of the need to perform a "second wave" of land reform in the said countries, supporting the "rational use of rural areas through appropriate land management tools and mechanisms" (Tonder Report 2004). One of such land management tools is land banking, which is defined by J. Damen as "the structural acquisition and temporary management of land in rural areas by an impartial State agency, with the purpose to redistribute and/or lease out this land with a view to improve the agricultural structure and/or to re-locate the land for other purposes with a general public interest"(DAMEN 2004). For the purpose of this article we will basically adhere to this definition of the said concept. In the key international workshop on land banking in 2004, Denmark, organized by the Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) it was pointed out that "land banks are used to play a catalytic role in the land market, assembling and providing better shaped plots and parcels to farmers in land consolidation projects, implementing and facilitating early retirement schemes, and enabling other types of 'land demanding' projects providing nature and environmental protection, afforestation and infrastructure" (Tonder Report 2004). The said concepts are fully applicable to Lithuania, which is terminating the process of land restitution and prepares for the second stage of the land reform, involving advanced land management techniques. Lithuania already has certain experience in land consolidation as first field projects are accomplished, the National Land Consolidation Strategy is adopted (Government Resolution no. 81, dated 23 January 2008) and the legal framework for land consolidation is functioning. Thus, following the example of other European countries, the effective land banking system would be an important complement to the land management system in Lithuania. As it may be seen from the study on land banking in Lithuania, the Lithuanian land bank or fund could have the following main objectives: (i) create a more competitive farm structure by reducing fragmentation and scaling up of mainly small and medium size commercial farms (5-50 hectares); (ii) address abandonment of agricultural land by revitalising of farming or reassigning of function depending on soil quality and location of the land and (iii) tune the land use structure in an integrated way to future and present infrastructural needs on local, regional and national levels (VAN HALL LARENSTEIN 2009). (fragment of text)
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