Intervention SRD11 - Non-productive forestry investments - Call 2024

This is a support measure for forest owners for the improvement and creation of infrastructure serving the multifunctional use of the forest. The aid consists of a contribution of 65% of the eligible expenditure for carrying out the investment.

Types of intervention allowed

(a) adjustment and upgrading of the existing and classified forestry and silvo-pastoral road system, leading to a significant improvement of the whole road both in terms of transit safety and vehicle travel time. Ancillary works to extend the existing road system of a length of more than 300 metres cannot be considered adjustments;

b) construction of new forestry and silvo-pastoral roads;

c) adaptation and upgrading of the road surface of existing forest paths, including the consolidation of relative ramps, preferably using bio-engineering techniques, excluding SAT paths

(d) adaptation of existing forest yards

(e) new construction of forestry forecourts or other fixed structures for logging.

The amount of support is as follows: 65% of the eligible expenditure. The minimum amount of eligible expenditure per application is €20,000.00. The maximum amount of eligible expenditure is €250,000.00 per beneficiary.

For interventions of type a) and b) the maximum amount of eligible expenditure per application is € 120,000.00 for punctual interventions or interventions relating to stretches of less than or equal to one kilometre; for stretches of more than one kilometre the maximum limit is € 120,000.00/kilometre, applied in proportion to the length of the work. Interventions for the construction of new forest roads of less than 200 metres in length are excluded.

For interventions of type c), d) and e) the maximum overall limit is 50,000.00 euro per beneficiary.

Commitments inherent in investment operations

The beneficiary of an investment operation undertakes to

- not to change, for a period of 5 years following the presentation of the application for the balance, the use of the works and areas subject to the intervention, except in cases duly assessed, justified and recognised by the competent Administration. In the event of a transfer, the take-over is admissible only if the existing commitments are signed by the sub-entrant;

- carry out maintenance for at least 5 years to ensure that the financed infrastructure is maintained in good working order;

- in the case of forestry roads, not change classification as a forestry road for 10 years, to ensure that the financed infrastructure remains in use;

- in the case of subject applicants, comply with public procurement regulations and draw up the procurement and contract award check sheets prepared by the Paying Agency (Agenzia provinciale per i pagamenti in agricoltura - APPAG), available at https://www.provincia.tn.it/FEASR;

- notify the Forestry Service in writing of the start of work before the grant is awarded at least 15 days in advance. Failure to notify the start of work within the specified timeframe may result in the initiative being considered ineligible, if this has prevented the Forestry Service from carrying out an ex-ante check of the state of the sites and therefore the regular technical investigation.

Applications may be submitted by

- the owners, possessors, public or private, and their associations, as well as other subjects and bodies of law, public or private, and their associations, owners of the forest surface;

- other subjects and bodies in law, public or private, and their associations, identified or delegated by the owners of the forest area for the implementation of initiatives also under provincial ownership.

The application must be digitally signed by the person entitled to sign the document, otherwise it will be inadmissible.

For any assistance in accessing and enabling the portal, please contact helpdesk.srtrento@provincia.tn.it.

Conditions of eligibility of applicants

On the date of submission of the application for aid each applicant

1. is obliged to set up, update and validate annually its electronic farm file in accordance with Presidential Decree No 503/99 ss.mm. and ii. The farm file is the set of information declared by the farm, checked, verified and unambiguously ascertained through the IACS. For entities not covered by Article 1 of Presidential Decree No 503/99 et seq. the farm file must be established, at APPAG, on the basis of the beneficiary's personal data. Information on the farm file and the user manual are available on the website of the Provincial Paying Agency, APPAG, at the following link http://www.appag.provincia.tn.it/APPAG/Fascicolo-aziendale;

2. must have title to, or suitable availability of, the parcels of land or buildings subject to the intervention in order to guarantee the respect and duration of any constraints on the financed investments

3. it must not be the recipient of recoveries of contributions granted under the 2007-2013 and 2014-2022 RDPs and then withdrawn, without their repayment.

The absence of any of the above requirements determines ineligibility for support.

All the necessary requirements and the selection criteria are specified in the text of the notice of the Provincial Council resolution no. 2350 of 21/12/2023.

The application must be submitted online by accessing the provincial agricultural information system SRTrento at https://srt.infotn.it which can also be reached from the portal https://a4g.provincia.tn.it/ by the deadline.

Access to the reserved area is allowed only to registered users, each user must first be accredited according to the procedures indicated in the manual on the SRTrento home page. The application must be digitally signed by the person entitled to sign the document, otherwise it will be inadmissible. For any assistance in accessing and enabling the portal you can helpdesk.srtrento@provincia.tn.it

- Technical-economic feasibility project including estimated metric calculation;

- List of titles acquired" form (e.g. SCIA, CIL, CILA. Building permits, authorisations, opinions, nulla osta);

- Acquired titles specified in the list above;

- Forestry report with justification of the selection scores included in the application signed by a qualified agro-forestry technician. The forestry report contains an "Investment Plan" aimed at providing useful elements for assessing the effectiveness and consistency of the project with respect to the aims of this call for proposals, also on the basis of the "Technical-economic feasibility project" referred to in the first point.

Procedure for granting or refusing the contribution

1. notification of the start of the administrative procedure and of the information required under Provincial Law 23/1992 and subsequent amendments and additions

2. verification of the documentary eligibility of all applications submitted and drawing up of the list of beneficiaries (ranking list), taking into account the priorities and scores provided for in this notice. Applications that do not reach the minimum score indicated in chapter 9.1 are excluded;

3. approval, by decision of the manager, of a merit ranking of the applications presented, within 90 days from the deadline for the presentation of the applications; The decision of the manager of the Forestry Service, will contain the list of all the applications presented, divided into eligible applications with the relative score and applications considered ineligible. This measure constitutes the conclusion of the administrative procedure pursuant to Provincial Law 23/1992 and subsequent amendments and will also indicate, among the eligible applications, the list of applications that can potentially be financed on the basis of the allocations provided for in Chapter 8.2;

4. notification to the applicant of the position in the ranking list and any potential financing or non-financing eligibility

5. decision to grant the contribution following the conclusion of the technical investigation and the drafting of the "Report of the initial administrative-technical-economic assessment" by the technical officer in charge, which defines the amount and type of eligible expenditure and the related contribution. The amount allocated may in no case exceed the amount indicated in the eligibility list. The technical appraisal is initiated for the applications found to be eligible and potentially eligible for financing and for a possible list of "reserve" applications from among those found to be eligible but not potentially eligible for financing due to insufficient allocation of the notice, obtained following the order of the ranking list and up to a maximum of 20% of the aforesaid allocation: this is in order to recover any reductions in expenditure that may emerge during the technical verification phase. Grants may be awarded on a cumulative basis, even in several instalments, taking into account the approved ranking lists;

6. notification of the grant/denial of the contribution and any requirements to be fulfilled before payment;

7. submission of any requests for variants and/or extensions.