BUCHAREST, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- Romania decided to grant financial aid to landowners who want to afforest areas, Agency for Payments and Intervention for Agriculture (APIA) announced on Tuesday.
According to APIA, owners of agricultural and non-agricultural land can access, from Dec. 11, 2018 to June 28, 2019, the state aid scheme for funding the creation of wooded areas in a program worth nearly 116 million euros (132 million U.S. dollars).
"This scheme provides financial support for the establishment of forest plantations, namely the creation of forest bodies and forest protection curtains," APIA said in a communiqué.
Fixed financial support is represented by standard costs per hectare for afforestation of agricultural and non-agricultural land, in the form of two premiums.
Planting premium (premium 1) covers also the costs of elaboration of the technical afforestation project - granted to all beneficiaries of the scheme, while annual premium (premium 2) for a period of 12 years covers the costs of maintenance and care of the forest plantation and compensates for the loss of agricultural income due to afforestation. The latter is granted in depending on the category of the beneficiary and the type of land, said the communiqué.
The maximum amount for a request under this scheme is 7 million euros (7.9 million dollars).
Holders of agricultural or non-agricultural land owned by the state and by territorial administrative units, or their associations benefit only from the support granted on the basis of premium 1, said APIA.
Romania's forest coverage is decreasing year by year due to illegal logging. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 28.6 percent or about 6,573,000 hectares of land in Romania is forested, of this 1,446,000 hectares being planted forest.
