Review of France’s SAFER Land Market Interventions

Understanding international experience of land market interventions is a key part of
developing the Scottish Land Commission’s evidence base, and ensures robust advice is
available on developing proposals for the Scottish context. The French ‘SAFER’1 model
regulates agricultural land in the public interest in France and is a key international model
in this respect.
Recent research for the Scottish Government has highlighted the SAFER mechanism as an
example of an intervention in land markets in Europe.2 In that study the SAFER example
was located within a wider discussion about land restrictions in Europe and the short SAFER
case-study did not go beyond a summary of the mechanism and perceived compatibility
with European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) case law.
The SAFER agricultural land governance model was introduced as part of a wide package
of reforms credited with transforming French agriculture from the 1960s onwards. Yet
beyond France SAFER is hardly known, and within France, experts have commented that
SAFER is little understood. Existing research on SAFERs is mostly in French and few studies
focus purely on SAFER and not the wider package of agricultural reforms introduced at
the same time.
This report presents a new analysis of this important institution. It collates existing
research and new primary research, collected through interviews with key experts, into a
comprehensive account of the model. It produces a robust understanding of the processes
and development of the SAFER land governance model.