Multifunctional land consolidation as a regulatory tool

“Multifunctional land consolidation” (in Danish: “multifunktionel jordfordeling”) is a regulatory approach to land use that encourages efforts to combat climate change and increase biodiversityin combination with other societal interests such as rural development, opportunities for recreation, and economic development for farmers. Since 2019, the Danish Agricultural Agency has run apilot subsidy scheme granting municipalities the funds to cover land consolidation charges through voluntary agreements with landowners. Using theories of governance and multifunctionality, thisproject analyses the opportunities of the pilot scheme to contribute to the mitigation of climate change and improvements of biodiversity. It is argued that the municipalities running projects mustdevelop new competencies as facilitators, which in turn reflects an emerging supervisory mode of governance. However, while voluntary participation is essential, the scheme does not require projects to be fully co-created by landowners and residents, and the funding structure of the scheme also undermines this effort. We argue that a greater focus on co-creation and more funding within the scheme could lead to greater levels of landowner support, which in turn could generate larger-scale changes in support of sustainable land use.