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Financing allotted through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) for the afforestation of agricultural land measure will be granted both for new forests as well as for windbreaks, Environment Minister Tanczos Barna said, on Wednesday, at a debate in the Committee for Environment and Ecological Balance of the Chamber of Deputies.
"Financing will be granted both to new forests as well as to windbreaks, and woodland from the PNRR will not enter the forestry fund, they will fall under a category of agroforestry use, they cannot be exploited, cannot be cut for 20 years. We will complete the establishment financing with a carbon trapping bonus. In this sense, we adopted a GEO [Government emergency ordinance] three weeks ago (...) We have already received some observations and proposals for completion on this ordinance, I agree to extend it to forests that are being established at the moment, meaning 2021-2022, and if someone has already started an afforestation process of agricultural land they benefit from the carbon trapping bonus. This will be 456 euro/ha/per year, for 20 years. This way we are practically creating an economic advantage in comparison to agricultural fields and we will ensure at least a bonus similar to subsidies in agriculture. Essentially, this has been the largest issue in the past 15 years," said Tanczos Barna, when asked if windbreaks are part of the forestry fund and if they're eligible for financing through the afforestation measure of the PNRR, Agerpres.ro informs.
When asked if there is a minimum area for afforestation and if it needs to be compact, minister Tanczos mentioned that the minimum surface proposed by specialists is 0.5 hectares and it must be compact.
Not least, the Environment Minister stated that there is need for staff at the Forestry Guards, mentioning they will open up job opportunities, but that a larger financial allotment is needed.
