“There are almost 100,000 private forest owners in Estonia who play a key role
in providing proper care and maintenance of the forests. For the Ministry of
the Environment, a conscious and responsible forest owner is of high priority. On
the part of the state, we are trying to support forest regeneration,
development of forest management programmes, and offer advisory support to
private forest owners,” Keit Pentus, the Minister of the Environment, said. In accordance with a Decree on State Subsidies Supporting Private Forestry, which came into effect on 30 March, state subsidies in the total amount of 450,000 euro are going to be allocated to the support of forestry associations this year, while 350,000 euro will be used for providing advisory support to private forest owners. In addition to that, the State is also going to invest 900,000 euro in development of forest management programmes and 785,000 euro in reforestation support. The revised Decree hereinafter also enables private forest owners to apply for assistance in the amount of 10,000 euro for flood drainage on forest areas. In total, 400,000 euro is budgeted for the support of forestry improvement. Applications can be submitted to the Private Forest Centre from 30 April 2012. When granting a subsidy to forest regeneration, a separate subsidy rate is going to be applied which amounts to 0.35 euro per plant when purchasing broad-leaved species instead of 0.16 that has been applied up to now. That will motivate forest owners to plant the most suitable species of wood in our forests, thereby increasing the natural diversity. The subsidy to development of the forest management programme and forest inventory amounts to 14.5 euro per hectare. It enables to provide additional support to preparation of the forest management programme covering about 6,000 hectares. All forest owners also have an opportunity of getting advisory support with the assistance of the state. Starting from 1 July 2012, forest owner’s self-financing in the amount of 10 per cent will be required if an advisory session lasts for longer than 2 hours. In order to motivate forest owners to get together and join into partnership associations, a new minimum number of members, which is now 120, has been established that is taken into account when paying subsidies to forestry associations. Large associations can offer better services to forest owners and make more effective use of state subsidies. |
