Flanders

• Although agriculture still occupies about 45% of the Flemish territory, its space is very much under pressure due to various spatial claims.

• Very high agricultural real estate prices and much non-agricultural farmland use (“virtual farmland”) reduce land availability.

• The agricultural sector is strongly ageing.

• The high pressure on land has contributed to strong specialisation in the agricultural sector and the loss of its historical, land-based character.

• Environmental objectives and regulations now require the transition to more sustainable farming practices with closed cycles, facing many farmers with access to land issues.

• The debate on using public farmland takes place against the backdrop of decades of continuous sales of public farmland.

• Local authorities struggle with translating land access and sustainability support into concrete, well-developed policy initiatives and planning strategies.

• Increasing attention is being paid to the potential of supporting farmers in their sustainability efforts by making public farmland available.

• A growing number of local authorities are looking to engage with this issue.

• The Flemish government has expressed the ambition to support local authorities in this effort.

The SPADES project is collaborating on this pilot with the Flemish Land Agency (VLM), the competent authority for land consolidation and rural development. The VLM is experimenting on the Plateau of Izenberge with a call for the allocation of public farmland to farmers willing to address regional soil, water and climate challenges. They are doing this in close cooperation with the Flemish Agency for Agriculture. This initiative is also an important stepping stone towards the development of a Flemish agricultural land policy. SPADES will contribute to the development of a Flemish learning network (community of practice) addressing the connection between soil challenges and public land ownership as a planning issue, among other things. The network will pool lessons from existing projects, build knowledge on how governments can work with farmers on public land and elaborate on the different policy goals that may be pursued through access to public farmland.