Aid for forestry

A private forest owner may be eligible for state aid for various kinds of forest management measures and for forest roads and the management of forest nature. The aim is to activate forest owners and encourage them to good and sustainable forest management. The incentive scheme promotes measures that have an impact on the growth and use of forests in the long term and where it will take several decades before the private economic benefit will be gained. The incentive scheme promotes water protection in forestry, mitigates climate change and promotes the adaptation of forests to climate change. The scheme also provides financing for measures that promote nature management in commercial forests and encourages to preserve and restore valuable forest nature sites. 

Aid under the Act on a Temporary Forestry Incentive Scheme can be granted for the management of seedling stands and young forests and collection of small-diameter wood produced in connection with this, remedial fertilisation, drawing up a peatland forest management plan, water protection measures in peatland forests, construction of embankment and forest roads and improvement of private roads, environmental aid contracts, forest nature management and prescribed burning. Aid is applied for from the Forest Centre.

The Act on a Temporary Forestry Incentive Scheme entered into force on 1 January 2024. Seedling stand and young forest management works could be started immediately after the entry into force of the act. Aid for the management of seedling stands and young forests is applied for after the work has been carried out and it is paid as de minimis aid.

With respect to the other types of work, the landowner must apply for the aid and wait for the decision of the Forest Centre before starting the work.

The Temporary Act on the Financing of Sustainable Forestry entered into force in June 2015. The aid scheme was in force until the end of 2023. New application under this act are no longer accepted. The last decisions concerning the aid for sustainable forestry were to be made by the end of 2023. Payments based on decisions under this act can be made until the end of 2026.

In the 2024 Budget, EUR 38.4 million in state aid has been reserved for ensuring sustainable wood production and EUR 11 million for promoting the management of forest nature.
 

Related links

Act on a Temporary Forestry Incentive Scheme (71/2023)
Temporary Act on the Financing of Sustainable Forestry (34/2015)