Tackling Agricultural Land Abandonment: Italian Legislation on "Land Banks"

In the context of EU strategy for efficient use of natural resources and the CAP 2014-2020, there has been renewed interest in the issue of abandoned or uncultivated land in Italy. This article analyses the Italian Regions "Land Banks" initiatives for restoring the productive and sustainable use of uncultivated lands and forests. After describing the objectives and operating rules, their innovative and critical aspects are compared with the non-implimented the 1978 State Law on land abandonment and examined in relation to the Italian Constitutional principles of the "rational use of land" and "social function" of private property.