The first pattern of land use change I want to examine is the fragmentation of land use as it is reflected in the dissolution of collective structures since the collapse of socialism. I begin with an analysis of the fragmentation of the collective plot structure (and the lack of subsequent land consolidation), and continue with an analysis of the dissolution of irrigation, land terracing, and waste disposal systems in the focus of collective action. Through the analyses I move from the description of the pattern of land fragmentation in the previous chapter to its explanation through a lens of rent.

The Fragmentation of the Plot Structure

As I have shown in Chapter 3, the collective plot structures in Kodra, Bagëtia and Dardha have undergone extreme fragmentation since the collapse of socialism. The origins of this fragmentation lie in Albania's postsocialist land reform and its peculiar local implementations.

The Postsocialist Land Reform

In 1991, 24 years after the collectivization of agricultural land under socialism, Albania instituted a land reform that sought to re-create private property rights to land. The reform differed substantially from the land reforms in other postsocialist countries (Cungu and Swinnen 1999). Unlike elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe, Albania's 1991 Law “Concerning the Land” (Land Law) took into account “neither former ownership, nor the land boundaries and sizes before collectivization” (Article 8). In other words, the Law did not restitute land to its former, pre-collectivization owners.