SRD04: Non-productive agricultural investments with an environmental purpose - Call 2025

It is an intervention to support forest owners for non-productive investments with environmental purposes in the agro-sylvo-pastoral territory and Natura 2000 habitats. The aid consists of a contribution of 70% or 80% of the eligible expenditure for the realisation of the investment.

Types of intervention allowed

- creation of ponds and/or wetlands for watering purposes in mountain pastures;

- construction of storage tanks/tanks and/or water supply systems for watering livestock in the mountain pastures;

- construction of drinking troughs in the pastures or renovation of stone troughs in the meadow or pasture areas;

- phyto-purification systems in meadow or pasture areas;

- construction of wooden fences or conservative restoration of stone fences, with possible hedges and tree rows;

- restoration of regressing habitats, consisting in the recovery of grassland or pasture areas or abandoned habitats;

- projects in favour of Natura 2000 habitats;

- wooden fences with an electrification system;

- electrification systems to protect livestock from large carnivores;

- roadside grids to contain livestock at accesses to alpine pastures;

- beehive protection sheds (bienenhaus with permanent electrified fencing)

The amount of support is as follows: 70% of eligible expenditure, with an increase to 80% only for initiatives included in the annual programme of a forestry association. The minimum amount of eligible expenditure per application is € 15,000.00. The maximum amount of eligible expenditure is € 100,000.00 per beneficiary.

Commitments inherent in investment operations

The beneficiary of an investment operation undertakes to

- carry out the operation as defined in the granting measure, subject to any variants and/or derogations established;

- ensure the stability of the supported investment operation (continued use and maintenance) for a minimum period of 6 years from the date of final payment to the beneficiary. Exceptions are those cases duly assessed, justified and recognised by the competent Provincial Administration and compatible with the implementing provisions of the PHP. In the case of a transfer, the take-over is only admissible if the existing commitments are signed by the sub-entrant;

- comply, in the case of subject applicants, with public procurement regulations and draw up the procurement and assignment control forms prepared by the Paying Agency (Provincial Agency for Payments in Agriculture - APPAG), available at https://www.provincia.tn.it.

- 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 an opinion of ineligibility of the initiative, if this has prevented the Forestry Service from carrying out an ex-ante check of the state of the sites and therefore the regular performance of the technical preliminary investigation.

Applications may be submitted by:

- Individual or associated farmers, including purpose consortia;

- Other public or private land managers, including associated ones, such as land owners and their associations, land improvement consortia, holders of land management on the basis of a written deed, and beekeepers duly registered with the Provincial Agency for Health Services (APSS);

- Collective entities, including beneficiaries of cooperation measures, which include within their membership entities referred to in the above criteria.

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. must have title to or suitable availability of the land parcels or buildings where the investment falls in order to guarantee the respect and duration of any constraints resulting from the financing

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 lack of any of the above requirements determines ineligibility for support.

All the necessary requirements and selection criteria are specified in the text of the call for applications approved by resolution of the Provincial Council no. 2141 of 23 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 you can helpdesk.srtrento@provincia.tn.it

The following documents must be attached to the application

- Technical-economic feasibility project, including the estimated metric calculation. The project is also accompanied by the report justifying the selection scores included in the application and the investment project with the contents specified in the notice.

- List of titles acquired" form (e.g. SCIA, CIL, CILA. Building permits, authorisations, opinions, clearances) https://forestefauna.provincia.tn.it/Foreste/Attivita-forestali/Contributi-allo-sviluppo-rurale-PSP-2023-2027;

- Any titles acquired and specified in the list above;

- Technical-information sheet;

- Shapefile (EPSG25832) with the location of the interventions (punctual for wells, drinking troughs and other punctual interventions; linear for fences and rows; areal for recovery areas);

- In the case of applications submitted by management entities: copy of the rental contract or similar, declaration by the owner that he/she has not submitted and does not intend to submit an application for assistance and agreement between the parties on the fulfilment of maintenance obligations.

Procedure for granting or refusing aid

The procedure for granting or refusing the contribution is divided as follows:

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. At this stage, applications are considered ineligible if they do not comply with the eligibility conditions of the applicants or if they are not accompanied by an investment plan with respect to what is foreseen 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 the call;

b) eligible applications in reserve (list aimed at recovering possible reductions in expenditure that emerged during the technical verification phase and obtained following the order of the ranking list and up to a maximum of 20% of the allocation indicated in the call)

c) eligible applications that are not subject to technical scrutiny.

The ranking list remains valid until the date of approval of a possible further call for applications on the SRD04 intervention and in any case for no more than 12 months from the date of approval of the ranking list.

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

5. grant decision (within 90 days starting from the day after the date of adoption of the decision approving the ranking list) 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 extent and type of eligible expenditure and the relevant grant, also taking into account the provisions of the call for proposals on State Aid. The grant decision may impose requirements to be fulfilled before payment. The amount awarded shall in any case not exceed the amount indicated in the eligibility list. The technical appraisal is carried out for potentially eligible applications and for reserve eligible applications. If, during the period of validity of the eligibility list, the Provincial Council increases the financial endowment of the call for applications in order to extend coverage to further eligible applications, the Forestry Service also proceeds with the technical appraisal for the remaining eligible applications according to the criteria indicated in point 3). Grants may be awarded on a cumulative basis, even in several stages, taking into account the approved rankings;

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.