December 16 (SeeNews) - The European Commission said on Friday it approved a 32 million euro ($34 million) Romanian funding scheme made available through the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) to promote afforestation.
The scheme, which will run until the end of September 2024, is aimed at improving the resilience and environmental value of forest ecosystems, in particular of species and ecotypes, in view of the future climatic conditions in Romaniam, the Commission said in a press release.
You can download the 2023 Agriculture industry in Southeast Europe report here
In particular, the scheme will support the establishment, development and upgrading of forest seedlings production capacities, and the production, processing and conditioning of afforestation seeds.
Under the scheme, the support will take the form of direct grants covering between 70% and 90% of the eligible investment costs. The scheme will be open to public and private forest holders and authorised producers of forest reproductive material.
Romania is set to receive 29.2 billion euro in total under the RRF, consisting of 14.2 billion euro in grants and 14.9 billion euro in loans.
In June, the Commission approved a 500 million euro Romanian afforestation support scheme aimed at supporting owners of agricultural land suitable for afforestation to establish new forest areas.
In May, the Commission gave the green light to a 100 million euro Romanian funding scheme to support the regeneration of damaged forests.
($=0.9412 euro)