Land fragmentation and efforts to prevent it in Slovak legislation

Abstract

Agricultural land represents a country’s natural heritage. Therefore, land protection is an issue that is the subject of various legislative measures, also including those that affect land fragmentation. Land fragmentation is a problem that hinders the effective use of land. In 1995, Slovak lawmakers adopted Law 180/1995 Coll., which prevents the fragmentation of land under a minimum size. The aim of this paper was to determine whether Slovak legislation concerning land fragmentation is effective and prevents this phenomenon. We compare the Slovak legislation with the legislations of other countries, and, further, we describe the existing situation with respect to land fragmentation in the individual regions of the country according to the requirements of Slovak legal regulations. The results include proposals for the potential amendment of the legal regulation to ensure the effective prevention of land fragmentation.