Land Consolidation and Its Effects on Afforested Agricultural Land: A Case Study of Ukraine

The study is dedicated to the optimization of the naturally afforested land plots. The purpose of this paper was to substantiate land consolidation in the environment of natural afforestation in Ukraine. The look-back analysis of afforestation in the timespan of 20 years was carried out, and the need for the sustainable land use and keeping the tree cover on the afforested land plots was substantiated. Land consolidation, aimed at the optimization of use of agricultural, forest, and naturally afforested land of a territorial community is suggested. The availability of reserve land and the possibility of its involvement in the process of reallotment was substantiated. The development of multifunctional land consolidation was suggested; the reallotment was carried out based on the principles of rural land consolidation and forestry land consolidation. Two land consolidation options were suggested: land plot buying out and swapping the boundaries of the initial land plots as much as possible and land plot reallotment. The algorithms and practical implementation of these approaches in the Kipti territorial community of the Chernihiv Region of Ukraine were presented. As the result of land consolidation, the consolidated land plots, bordering on forest land, were created; the configuration and placement of agricultural land plots were improved. The prospects, limitations, and solutions to the issue of natural afforestation by means of land consolidation by the presented method were singled out.