Intervention SRD15 - Forestry Productive Investments - Call 2025

This is support for the purchase of equipment for forestry work. The aid consists of a contribution of 40% of the eligible expenditure for the realisation of the investment.

Types of intervention allowed

(a) modernisation of the fleet of machinery and equipment for cultivation, felling preparation and extraction activities, as well as for the processing, mobilisation and marketing of forestry products;

(b) introduction of technical and management innovation to optimise the processes of utilisation and processing of wood and non-wood forest products;

The amount of support is as follows: 40% of eligible expenditure. The maximum amount of eligible expenditure per beneficiary is €250,000.00. Within this maximum amount per beneficiary, the notice specifies the maximum amounts of eligible expenditure for specific machinery.

Commitments inherent in investment operations

The beneficiary of an investment operation undertakes to

- carry out the investments in accordance with the provisions of the "Investment Plan" approved with the concession measure by the competent Administration, subject to any variations and/or exceptions established by the same;

- not to change the use, alienate, dispose of or dispose of means and equipment subject to the intervention, for a period of 5 years following the presentation of the application for the balance, except in cases duly justified and recognised by the competent Administration;

- for investments in equipment relevant to forest use such as cable cranes and lorries for the transport of wood material, to carry out at least 30% of the use on provincial territory for 5 years from the payment. At the end of the 5 years, upon request of the competent Administration, the beneficiary will have to demonstrate the fulfilment of the commitment with the presentation of documentation proving the forest lots and/or the cubic metres of wood used during the 5 year period with such means and equipment within the provincial territory and outside it (e.g. with contractual documentation).

- for applicants who are subject to this, comply with the regulations on public supply contracts and draw up the control sheets for contracts and the awarding of contracts prepared by the Paying Agency (Agenzia provinciale per i pagamenti in agricoltura - APPAG), available at https://www.provincia.tn.it.

Applications may be submitted by

- Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) registered in the provincial list of forestry companies established at the Chamber of Commerce of Trento1 and carrying out an economic activity in the sector of forestry and forest use, in the management, defence and protection of the territory, as well as in the sector of first processing and (non-industrial) marketing of wood and non-wood forest products, also providing services in the forestry, environmental and energy fields, regardless of their legal form, in compliance with the national and provincial regulations in force; they may also not be owners, possessors and/or holders of forest areas and provide services, works and/or processing in the forestry and first processing sector.

- Owners, possessors, whether public or private, and their associations, as well as other legal entities and bodies, whether public or private, and their associations, that own forestry land in the territory of the Province of Trento; this also includes large companies that carry out economic activity on forestry land in the territory of the Province of Trento that they own or possess.

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 guide are available on the institutional website of the Autonomous Province of Trento, at the following link: https://www.provincia.tn.it/Documenti-e-dati/Documenti-di-supporto/Manuale-del-fascicolo-aziendale-versione-1.0-APPAG;

2. it must have its registered office and tax domicile in the territory of the Autonomous Province of Trento, in view of the local relevance of the measure, the requirements of the applicants and the commitments required

3. it must have within its staff at least one operator in possession of the technical qualification licence for the conduction of forestry exploitation pursuant to Article 102 bis of LP n. 11/2007. This condition does not apply to applicants submitting aid applications for the purchase of equipment specified in point 1(d), (f), (g), (h) of Chapter 5.3.3;

4. if qualified under point 2 of Chapter 4.1 of the notice, must have forest areas planned under Article 57 of LP No 11/2007

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

All the necessary requirements and the selection criteria are specified in the text of the call for applications approved by resolution of the Provincial Council no. 2049 of 13 December 2024

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, please contact helpdesk.srtrento@provincia.tn.it.

Documents to be attached to the aid application

- "Investment plan" with the contents detailed in the notice;

- technical-information sheet for the product, as detailed in the call for proposals;

- at least three detailed cost estimates produced by three different and competing suppliers, as specified in the notice.

Procedure for granting or refusing assistance

The procedure for granting or refusing the contribution concerns admissible applications and is divided as follows:

1. notification of the start of administrative proceedings and other information pursuant to 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 are considered ineligible if they do not meet the eligibility conditions of the applicants or are not accompanied by an investment plan as provided for in the notice. Applications that do not reach the minimum score indicated in the notice are also considered ineligible;

3. approval, through a determination by the manager of the Forestry Service, of a ranking list of applications within 90 days from the deadline for submitting applications, with the simultaneous conclusion of the administrative procedure pursuant to Provincial Law 23/1992 and subsequent amendments and integrations. The measure will include a list of all the applications submitted, divided into eligible applications with relative points (ranking list) and applications found to be ineligible. Eligible applications will be divided into

a. eligible applications potentially eligible for funding based on the allocation indicated in chapter 8.2 of the notice;

b. eligible applications in reserve (list aimed at recovering possible reductions in expenses established in the subsequent technical verification phase and obtained following the order of the ranking list and up to a maximum value of 20% of the allocation indicated in the call)

c. eligible applications not to be subjected to technical assessment;

4. communication to the applicant of the position of its application in the list approved by the measure referred to in the previous point;

5. decision to grant the grant following the conclusion of the technical investigation (within 90 days starting from the day after the date of adoption of the decision approving the merit list), subject to the drafting of the "Report of the initial administrative technical-economic assessment" by the technical officer in charge, which defines the extent and type of eligible expenditure and the related grant. The grant decision may impose requirements to be fulfilled before payment. The amount allocated may in no case exceed the amount indicated in the eligibility list. The technical appraisal is started for potentially eligible applications and for eligible reserve applications. 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;

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