Schlüsselbegriffe: Politik des ländlichen Raumes, Evaluation, forstliche Maßnahmen, ländliche Erntwicklung
Summary
The European Treaty on the functioning of EU makes no reference to specific provisions for a common European forest policy but, during the time, some policies and in particular the rural development policies have had a great impact on the governance of the EU Member States. Forest policy is considered as an fundamental part of the EU rural development policy and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) contributing to the implementation of rural development programmes in each Member State can be considered as the main source of funding for forestry measures. The new Rural Development Regulation (EU) 1305/2013 for the programming period 2014-2020 provides specific intervention based not only to the primary production function of forests and its contribution to the economic advancement of rural areas, but also to the new demands arising on forests. In particular a greater emphasis is given to the role of forests in maintaining and creating ecological and amenity services, in increasing biodiversity and in fighting against the climate change. The paper focuses on the forestry measures provided by the Reg. (EU) 1305/2013 (Measure 8 and Measure 15) giving an overview of the decisions taken by each Member State in terms of planned expenditures, priorities and focus area on the basis of the Rural Development Programmes (RDPs) approved in December 2015.The work gives a general description of Measures and sub-measures describing how they are classified in the general framework of Reg. (EU) 1305/2013, how the EU Member States have allocated the programmed expenditure between the two measures and what are the most important targets at EU level in terms of priorities and focus areas. The same analysis on the single sub-measures, is made for the Italian case on the basis of the information gathered from the 21 RDPs.
Zusammenfassung
Der Vertrag über die Zusammenarbeit innerhalb der EU enthält keine spezifischen Bestimmungen bezüglich einer gemeinsamen europäischen Forstpolitik. Trotzdem hatten einzelne Strategien, im speziellen die Strategie zur Entwicklung des ländlichen Raumes, im Laufe der Zeit starken Einfluss auf die Entwicklung einzelner EU Mitgliedsstaaten. Die Forstpolitik wird als fundamentaler Bestandteil der EU-Politik zur Entwicklung des ländlichen Raums und des Europäischen Landwirtschaftsfonds für die Entwicklung des ländlichen Raums (ELER) gesehen die zur Umsetzung ländlicher Entwicklungsprogramme in den Mitgliedsstaaten beitragen und ihrerseits wiederum die Hauptfinanzierungsmöglichkeit für forstliche Maßnahmen darstellen. Die Vorgaben der neuen Vorschriften für die Entwicklung des ländlichen Raumes (EU) 1305/2013 für die Periode 2014-2020 beziehen sich nicht nur auf die Produktionsfunktion von Wäldern und ihren wirtschaftlichen Beitrag für den ländlichen Raum sondern thematisieren auch neuartige Ansprüche an Wälder. Im Detail wird Wäldern eine Bedeutung beim Erhalt und der Schaffung ökologischer und spiritueller Leistungen, beim Erhöhen der Biodiversität sowie im Kampf gegen die Auswirkungen des Klimawandels beigemessen. Dieser Beitrag betrachtet die forstlichen Maßnahmen der Verordnung (EU) 1305/2013 (Maßnahme 8 und Maßnahme 15) und gibt einen Überblick über die Entscheidungen der Mitgliedsstaaten im Sinne von geplanten Ausgaben, Prioritäten und Zielgebieten auf Basis des Programmes zur Entwicklung des ländlichen Raumes (RDP) welches im Dezember 2015 beschlossen wurde. Die Arbeit beschreibt wie Maßnahmenpakete und Einzelmaßnahmen im Gesamtkontext der Verordnung (EU) 1305/2015 zu sehen sind, wie die EU Mitgliedsstaaten die Aufteilung der Förderungen zwischen den Programmen durchgeführt haben sowie die wichtigsten Ziele auf EU Ebene in Bezug auf Prioritäten und Zielgebiete. Die selbe Untersuchung auf Ebene der Einzelmaßnahmen wird für die Regionen Italiens auf Grundlage der im Rahmen von 21 RDPs gesammelten Daten durchgeführt.
1. Introduction
Even if the European Treaty on the functioning of EU makes no reference to specific provisions for a common European forest policy, in the last decades forests have been included in a broad array of EU policies and initiatives arising from different sectors, giving an important contribution to the implementation of sustainable forest management and helping Member States in taking their decisions on forests. In particular environmental policies (i.e. Natura 2000) and rural development policies have had a great influence on forest policies in the EU Member States (Edwards and Kleinschmit, 2013).
The formulation of forest policies is a competence of the single Member States that define their specific framework, their national and regional laws and regulations, their medium-long planning according to non-binding governance agreements such as the National Forest Programmes or the EU Forest Strategy. This last document has been issued in 1998 with the aim to establish a framework for forest-related actions to support sustainable forest management and the multifunctional role of forests. The same guiding principles are the basis of the new EU Forest Strategy (EU Commission, 2013) that, in addition, refers to the resources efficiency, which can be evaluated to the extent that all the realized interventions optimize the contribution of forests and forest sector to rural development, growth and job creation.
In this respect, forest policy is considered as an integral part of the EU rural development policy (European Commission, 1997) and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) supporting the implementation of rural development programmes in each Member State is the main source of funding for forestry intervention. The changed role of forests in rural areas is the core of the new Rural Development Regulation (EU) 1305/2013 for the programming period 2014-2020 that provides specific intervention based not only on the contribution of the productive function of forests to the economic advancement of rural areas, but also on the new demands arising for other environmental services. In particular a greater emphasis is given to the role of forests in maintaining and creating ecological and amenity services, in increasing biodiversity and in fighting against climate change. With respect to the latter, forests are considered in a holistic approach aiming to contribute to the fulfilment of the basic principles of the EU Forest Strategy and having regard to the international and national commitments and to what has been defined in the Ministerial Conferences on the Protection of Forests in Europe. Comparing to 2007-2013 RD programming period, the greater overall focus upon farm and forestry sectors support and environmental management and investment expected for 2014-2020, is notable (DG for Internal Policies, 2016).
The paper focuses in particular on the forestry measures provided by the Reg. (EU) 1305/2013, giving an overview of the decisions taken by each Member State in terms of planned expenditures, priorities and focus area.
Different from the past, the Member States have drawn their RDPs addressing specific common EU priorities: knowledge and innovation; viability and competitiveness of agriculture and sustainable forest management; food chain organization, animal welfare and risk management; ecosystems related to agriculture and forestry; resource efficiency, low carbon and climate-resilient economy; social inclusion and poverty reduction. Every priority is broken down into specific focus areas (FA) and the Member States quantify their targets against the FA, setting out which measures will be used to achieve these targets and how much of funding will be allocated in each measure. Information about planned expenditure and resource allocation for the next programming period has been gathered on the basis of approved RD Plans (118 on total, in December 2015) which contents are summarized in the official factsheet issued by the European Commission. A first level of analysis is made at EU level while the Italian case is described more specifically, even in terms of comparison with the previous programming period (planned expenditure, modulation, final expenditure and financial execution).
The analysis is based mainly on two measures: Measure 8 concerning investments in forest area development and improvement of the viability of forests and Measure 15 concerning forest-environmental and climate services and forest conservation.
A general description of both measures and sub-measures is given in the second chapter that describes how they are classified inside the general framework of Reg. (EU) 1305/2013 and what are the most important changes introduced in the new regulation. Almost all the interventions realized in the last programming period have been repeated in the new rural development policy, though reorganized in a more structured way in order to permit integrated projects with a higher value added. Some interventions have been merged while others have been proposed as they stand.
The third chapter describes how the Member States have allocated the financial resources between Measures 8 and 15 in terms of priorities and focus areas. This preliminary analysis, based on the approved RDPs (December 2015), permits to have a first idea about the most important targets for each Member State in terms of forestry policy orientation inside the RD plans. The six new strategic priorities for RD are different from the previous three goals applying for the 2007-2013 period (farm and forestry competitiveness, environmental management, economic diversification and quality of life), in particular because they add climate change, adaptation and mitigation, knowledge and innovation. Specific analyses describe the general patterns of allocation to priorities in the 2014-2020 period, showing a predominance of spending on environmental protection and enhancing competitiveness in farms and forestry (DG for Internal Policies, 2016). This work is an additional contribution specifically devoted to forestry measures that can give an initial overview about the planning of forestry intervention in the EU Member States, their choices and their approaches.
A similar analysis is made looking at the Italian case, described in the fourth chapter. In Italy RD policy is managed at a regional level, in 21 different RDPs and policy schemes. The chapter describes the distribution of resources among the Italian regions, priorities and FAs together with a brief ex-post analysis regarding the level of expenditures at the end of the last programming period. Every region has allocated the budget for forestry measures according to the territorial needs and to specific priorities. The comparison between the future allocation and the expenditures resulting in the last programming period shows a general decrease of resources for forestry measures but a conservative approach in the application of intervention. All data have been collected by the Italian Rural Network, involved in the monitoring and evaluation framework of RD policies. This is the first step for the future monitoring activities, complicated by the 21 different RDPs which render the application of a homogeneous and coordinated forest policy at national level difficult.
2. Forestry measures in the Rural Development Programming period 2014-2020
In 1957, in the European Treaty of Rome on the functioning of EU, forest products (with the exception of cork) were excluded from the annex 1, that is the list of products for which the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been defined and implemented. Consequently, forest policy remained a competency of Member States on the basis of the subsidiarity principles. Currently, there is not an EU common forest policy but a significant body of forest-focused and forest-related policies. One of them is the Rural Development (RD) policy, funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), that includes specific interventions for forests and forest management. During the time, the importance of forestry inside the rural development policies strengthened and today it is considered as an integral part, contributing to the achievement of some important environmental, social and economic targets and delivering multiple services to society. For the next programming period 2014-2020, almost 100 billion of euros and further 61 billion of euros of public funding in the Member States will be allocated to fund RD policy. The policy is implemented through 118 different Rural Development Plans (RDPs), with 20 single national programmes and 8 Member States opting to have two or more regional programmes.
Different from the last programming period 2007-2013, EU Member States and Regions have defined their programmes on the basis of six EU priorities (broken down in different focus areas), indicated in the art.5 of Reg. (EU) 1305/2013:
1. fostering knowledge transfer and innovation in agriculture, forestry and rural areas;
2. enhancing the viability and competitiveness of all types of agriculture, and promoting innovative farm technologies and sustainable forest management;
3. promoting food chain organization, animal welfare and risk management in agriculture;
4. restoring, preserving and enhancing ecosystems related to agriculture and forestry;
5. promoting resource efficiency and supporting the shift towards a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy in the agriculture, food and forestry sectors;
6. promoting social inclusion, poverty reduction and economic development in rural areas.
Forests are mentioned explicitly in three of the priorities. The promotion of the sustainable management of forests is included in priority 2. The protection of ecosystem dependent of forestry is included in priority 4, while the role of forest in moving towards a low carbon economy, sequestering carbon and enhancing the production of renewable energy is included in priority 5.
During the last programming period 2007-2013, a variety of measures covered different types of support for forestry investment and management. In order to simplify the implementation of forestry intervention and to allow the realisation of integrated projects having a higher added value, all the measures have been grouped into one single measure, that is Measure 8, under the article 21 of Reg. (EU) 1305/2013. The investments improving the resilience and environmental value of forest ecosystems, included in Measure 15, are eligible under the article 34 of Reg.1305/2013. Forestry interventions under Natura 2000 or other interventions affecting the forestry sector are provided by other measures and are not considered in this work.
Measure 8 concerns the investments in forest area development and improvement of the viability of forests (art.21-26 of Reg. (EU) 1305/2013). The measure includes several sub-measures:
• 8.1: afforestation and creation of woodland (art.22)
• 8.2: establishment of agroforestry systems (art.23)
• 8.3 and 8.4: prevention and restoration of damage to forests from forest fires, natural disaster and catastrophic events, including pest and diseases outbreaks and climate related threats (art.24)
• 8.5: investments improving the resilience and environmental value as well as the mitigation potential of forest ecosystems (art.25)
• 8.6: investments in forestry technologies and in the processing, the mobilising and the marketing of forest products (art.26)
The new regulation introduces new elements. As concerns sub-measure 8.1, the two interventions of afforestation of agricultural and non-agricultural land, are grouped in one intervention in order to simplify the procedure for the payment calculation (no need to check if the land is agricultural or not or if the beneficiary is a farmer or not). Afforested areas may benefit simultaneously from the direct payments under the first pillar of CAP. Moreover plantation of short rotation coppice is not supported. In sub-measure 8.2, not only the cost of establishment of agroforestry systems is included but also the maintenance costs.
Important elements are introduced in sub-measures 8.3 and 8.4 and, in particular, the measures of prevention against pest and diseases, natural disasters, catastrophic events and climate change related events (as drought and desertification, as defined in the WTO Annex 2 on disasters).
Measure 15 supports forest-environmental and climate services and forest conservation (art.34 Reg. (UE) 1305/2013).The measure responds to the needs of promoting the sustainable management and improvement of forests and woodland, including the maintenance and improvement of biodiversity, water and soil resources and combating climate change. It responds also to the need to conserve the forest genetic resources (novelty compared to the past), including activities such as development of different varieties of forest species in order to adapt to specific local conditions and to make forests more vital and resilient to pests and diseases and able to provide the expected level of ecosystem services.
3. Allocation of planned resources for Measure 8 and 15 in the European Member States
Table 1: Planned expenditure for Measure 8 and 15 in EU Member States (Rural Development Programmes 2014-2020) / Tabelle 1: Geplante Ausgaben für Maßnahmen 8 und 15 in den EU Mitgliedsstaaten (Programm für die ländliche Entwicklung 2014-2020)
In the next programming period EU Member States will allocate 4.6% of the overall RD budget for M8 (about 7,070 millions €) and 0.3% for M15 (about 365 millions €). The distribution of the budget among them is shown in Table 1 together with a comparison of the planned expenditures with the total forested area (FOWL, forests and other wooded land).
The relative importance of the budget planned for forestry measures in the EU Member States (budget for forestry measures/total RDP budget) is highly variable. The biggest share of funds is allocated in Spain (28.0%) and Italy (19.6%), which together represent almost half the total expenditure planned at European level for the selected forestry measures, followed by the United Kingdom (8.3%) and Portugal (7.7%). Conversely, the smallest allocation can be found in Cyprus and Malta, the latter being the only EU Member State without forest land. Finland, Ireland and Luxembourg will not finance forestry interventions through their Rural Development Programmes.
Looking at each single measure, it can be seen that the majority of Member States have focused their expenditure plans mostly on Measure 8, with the exception of Romania which has divided the funds almost equally between the two measures. Other countries such as Netherlands, Italy and Hungary, have allocated a significant amount of resources on forest-environmental and climate schemes, while eleven Member States did not activate Measure 15 at all.
In the last column of Table 1an index shows the planned expenditure per hectare of forested area. On average in the European Union, the planned expenditure per hectare of forest and other wooded land is 40.9 €. Nonetheless, this value deeply varies among the Member States. The highest rate can be found in the United Kingdom: 195.7 €/ha to finance forestry interventions under the sole Measure 8, as Measure 15 has not been implemented. Then there is the Netherlands, which curiously adopted an opposite approach: in facts, the Dutch Managing Authority decided to allocate 141.3 €/ha but only for the intervention under Measure 15 of forest-environmental and climate services and forest conservation. These two countries are followed by Italy (130.9 €/ha), Hungary (119.2 €/ha), Portugal (117.4 €/ha) and Denmark (104.2 €/ha).
Figure 1: Relevance of forestry measures on total RDP budget and of forestry land on utilized agricultural area (UAA) in the EU Member States / Abbildung 1: Anteil der forstwirtschaftlichen Maßnahmen am Gesamtbudget des RDP und Verhältnis Waldfläche (FOWL) zu bewirtschafteter landwirtschaftlicher Fläche (UAA) in den EU Mitgliedsstaaten
Figure 1 shows the ratio between the planned expenditure for forestry measures (M8 and M15) and the total budget 2014-2020 for RD policies (left side of the vertical axis) and the relative importance of forested land on the Utilized Agricultural Area (UAA, right side of the vertical axis) in each EU Member State. A ratio equal to 1 means that the extension of forested area is equal to the agricultural area; the ratio higher than 1 evidences the relative higher extension of forested land.
The amount of financial resources dedicated to forestry measures in the countries where the stock of forest resources is relatively high, appears to be very low. The extreme case is represented by Finland, which has not applied for forestry measures under the RD policies, although its territory is 75.7% covered by forests and its forested area is 10 time larger than the agricultural one. This approach appears as a continuity with the previous programming period 2007-2013 when the same political decision was taken, with the exception of the afforestation of agricultural land (M221), implemented only to fulfil commitments made in the programming period 1995–1999 (AGRIGRID project, 2008). Almost the same situation can be found in Sweden, where the territory is 74.9% covered by forests but the planned expenditure for forestry measures is 0.3% of total Swedish Rural Development funds. In Cyprus, Estonia and Slovenia, the forest area is more than the double of the agricultural land but only in Estonia, the budget planned for forestry measures is relatively low (4.1 €/ha of FOWL). Nevertheless, it does not mean that these countries have not any forestry financing scheme: Finland has its own National Forest Strategy (newly adopted in February 2015), as well as an Act on the Financing of Sustainable Forestry through which about 75 million € are annually paid to private forest owners as incentives for forest improvement and biodiversity enhancement (Granholm, 2010). As regards Sweden, the National Forest Programme provides some national subsidies for measures in forestry in order to enhance the sector’s environmental value.
A rather different approach is the one adopted by Ireland. In fact, despite not having implemented any forestry measure in its RDP, the Irish Forest Service drafted a 100% State aid funding Forestry Programme, which is in accordance with Reg. (EU) 1305/2013 and the EU Guidelines for Strategic Programming for the period 2014–2020. The budget planned for measures falling within articles 22-27 and 34 of the Reg. (EU) 1305/2013 amounts to 220.5 million €. This means an expenditure of 275.2 € per hectare of forested area, the highest level among the 28 EU Member States (Forest Service, Dept. of Agriculture, Food and Marine of Ireland, 2015).
On the opposite side there are some Member States where the relative importance of forested area is quite low, but the planned expenditure for forestry measures seems to be very high. This is the case of Spain, where the ratio between FOWL and UAA is 1.2, but the percentage of financial resources destined to forestry measures is 16.4% of the total (the highest percentage in EU). Spain has always devoted significant parts of its RD budget to forestry measures: the rate was 16.7% in the programming period 2000-2006 (European Commission, 2003) and 14.3% in 2007-2013 (DG Agriculture and Rural Development, 2010). A special Focus Area F (Improved forestry use) was developed and utilized only by Spain, which allocates 0.4% of its Priority 5 spending to this. The FA has been added by Asturias where forestry related measures (in particular 8.1 and 8.6) are the ones with the highest allocations due to the large forestry area in this region (DG Internal Policies, 2016). A similar situation can be found in other Member States, for instance Portugal, Italy and Denmark, where the amount of resources for forestry measures is relatively high (12.2%, 7.8%, 7.6% respectively) while the stock of forest resources is low.
Even if it is not easy to point out a general trend in these policy decisions, there seems to be a different behaviour between the Mediterranean and the Northern countries, even though with some exceptions. The first ones, where the forest land is relatively low if compared to the agricultural area, tend to allocate a relevant part of their RD budget to forestry measures. On the contrary the continental countries, with high forest coverage and maybe a more deep-rooted tradition on forestry, target their funds on other rural development fields.
Figure 2: Allocation of planned resources in the EU Member States for Measure 8 and Measure 15 among focus area in 2014-2020 / Abbildung 2: Verteilung geplanter Ressourcen in den EU Mitgliedsstaaten für die Maßnahmen 8 und 15 in den Zielgebieten von 2014-2020
It is interesting to see how the resources planned to finance M8 and M15 are distributed among the priorities and focus areas at EU level (Figure 2). In total, EU Member States have addressed their forestry policies to reach the aim of the strategic Priority 4 (51% for ecosystem management) and Priority 5 (37.4% for low-carbon and climate resilience) in 2014-2020. The general pattern shows a predominance of spending on environmental protection while there is not the enhancing of competitiveness in forestry sector (low percentage of resources devoted for FA2A, FA2C, FA3A). As concerns Measure 8, 40.1% of the budget will be destined to reach the aim of FA5E regarding carbon conservation and sequestration; 27.6% for FA4B water management; 20.9% for FA4A biodiversity, HNV and landscapes. With regard to Measure 15, 75.1% of the budget is planned for FA4C (soil management) and 18.6% for FA4A.
Specific analysis resulting from the comparison between the planned expenditure under RDPs 2014-2020 and the expenditure realized under RDPs 2007-2013 (DG Internal policies, 2016), highlights a significant reduction of investment in forests (-42.0% for Measure 8, with 24 Member States decreasing their quota). As in the past, Measure 15 about forest conservation exhibits very low levels of spending and also in this case, a relevant number of Member States (21) have decreased the planned expenditures for these interventions.
4. Allocation of financial resources for forestry Measures 8 and 15 in Italy
Table 2: Planned expenditure for Measure 8 and 15 in Italy (Italian Rural Development Programmes 2014-2020) / Tabelle 2: Geplante Ausgaben für Maßnahmen 8 und 15 in den Regionen Italiens (Programm für die ländliche Entwicklung 2014-2020)
Like in other EU Member States, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) is the most important source for forestry policies also in Italy. As a consequence of the decentralization of forestry policies, rural development programming in Italy is based on 21 different RDPs (19 Regions and 2 Autonomous Provinces in Trentino and Bolzano-South Tyrol) and 21 different forestry policy schemes. The planned expenditure for 2014-2020 is around 1,421 million € (-23.1% as compared to the programming period 2007-2013): 96.4% destined to Measure 8 and 3.6% to Measure 5 (Table 2).
The total budget for both measures is differently allocated among the Italian regions. The highest quota is allocated in Sicily and Campania (14.5% in both cases) followed by Tuscany (10.1%). The rate for Basilicata, Calabria, Lombardy, Apulia and Umbria is between 5 and 10% of the total, while in Emilia Romagna, Liguria, Marche, Piedmont, Sardinia and Veneto the rate is between 2 and 5%. Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lazio, Molise, Trentino-South Tyrol and Aosta Valley allocate less than 2% of the total resources for forestry measures.
The last column of the table shows the average amount of support per hectare of FOWL. On average, the planned expenditure per hectare is equal to 135.8 € (higher than the EU average, 40.9 €/ha) but in some regions the value is very high as for instance in Apulia (614.4 €/ha), Sicily (609.6 €/ha), Campania (462.9 €/ha), Basilicata (254.6 €/ha) and Umbria (218.8 €/ha). Liguria, Lombardy, Marche and Veneto are not far from the average while the support per hectare in the other regions is comparatively low.
Figure 3: Relevance of forestry measures on total RDP budget and of forestry surface on utilized agricultural area (UAA) in Italian Regions / Abbildung 3: Anteil der forstwirtschaftlichen Maßnahmen am Gesamtbudget des RDP und Verhältnis Waldfläche (FOWL) zu bewirtschafteter landwirtschaftlicher Fläche (UAA) in den Regionen Italiens
Another analysis is presented in Figure 3: the quota of the budget for forestry measures on the total budget of the Regional RDPs is compared with the relative importance of forests and other wooded land as related to the Utilized Agricultural Area (UAA) in every Italian region.
In general, the surface covered by forests is relatively important in every Italian region. In nine of them, forested areas are more important than agricultural ones (Abruzzo, Trentino-South Tyrol, Calabria, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Sardegna, Tuscany, Umbria, Aosta Valley); in two of them the importance is very low (Apulia and Sicily); in the rest of Italy the forested areas are more than the half of agricultural area (Basilicata, Campania, Emilia Romagna, Lazio, Lombardy, Marche, Molise, Piedmont, Veneto). The Figure shows the particular case of Liguria where most part of the territory is covered by forests and other wooded land (375,134 ha) while the importance of agricultural areas is very low (43,784 ha): this Region has allocated 15.3% of total RD budget for forestry measures, a very high ratio if compared to the rest of Italy. Even Basilicata (13.3%), Campania (11.2%), Lombardy (10.3%) and Tuscany (14.9%) have allocated an important amount of the total budget for forestry measures while Abruzzo and Trentino show the smallest rates. Southern regions have destined a higher percentage of budget for the selected measures as compared to northern regions although having a less important forested area as related to the agricultural area.
Figure 4: Allocation of planned resources in Italy for Measure 8 and Measure 15 among focus areas in 2014-2020 / Abbildung 4: Verteilung geplanter Ressourcen in Italien für die Maßnahmen 8 und 15 in den Zielgebieten von 2014-2020
In Italy forestry measures will be targeted to reach mainly the objectives of Focus Area 4A, 5E and 2A. As in the rest of Europe, in Italy the specific regional patterns for forest policy in the rural areas seem to be oriented towards the management of forestry ecosystems in the prevalent dimension of ecological sustainability. As evidenced in other analysis (Edwards and Kleinschmit, 2013; Winkel et al., 2009), the forest policy perspective of Italy has environmental characteristics: forest is considered as an ecosystem and the most important targets aim to increase biodiversity and to preserve the ecosystems. This conservative orientation explains the allocation of resources in the different focus areas (Figure 4).
As concerns Measure 8, the planned expenditure is allocated to reach mainly the objectives linked to biodiversity, HNV and landscapes (FA4A, 49.5%) and carbon conservation and sequestration (FA5E, 36.9%), while less than 2% is devoted to risk management (FA3B) and renewable energy (FA5C). Different from the general European allocation, the Italian forestry measures are more oriented to the increase of competitiveness: 8.3% of planned resources are destined to improve the farm performance (FA2A, higher than the European average 3.0%) and 1.3% will fund projects aiming to improve the competitiveness of producers (FA3A, European average equal to 0.3%).
Measure 15 is destined mainly to reach the objective of Focus Area 4A (90.3%). The rest is allocated to reach the target of carbon conservation and sequestration (9.7%). Also in this case, the Italian priorities are different from EU, mainly oriented to soil protection and management (75.1% on average). Water management priority (FA4B) will not be covered by forestry measures.
Table 3: Planned budget for forestry measures in the RD programming period 2014-2020 and 2007-2013 and financial execution in Italy (,000 €) / Tabelle 3: Geplantes Budget für forstwirtschaftliche Maßnahmen in der Programmperiode der Entwicklung des ländlichen Raumes 2014-2020 und 2007-2013 sowie der Durchführungsgrad in Italien (,000 €)
As previously stated, all the forestry interventions of the programming period 2007-2013 have been proposed again in the Reg.(EU) 1305/2013 but organized in different sub-measures and grouped into Measure 8. Looking to the contents of the Regional RDPs, it can be noted that Italy will continue with the policy of afforestation and creation of woodland (8.1), protection of forests against forest fires and other disasters (8.3 and 8.4) as well as with improving the resilience and environmental value of forests (8.5). Table 3 shows the distribution of the planned budget for every intervention: 25.2% of budget for M8 will be used for interventions under the sub-measure 8.1; 38.4% under the sub-measures 8.3 and 8.4; 23.6% under the sub-measure 8.5. Sub-measure 8.2 concerning agroforestry has met difficulties in the last programming period and the budget planned for this kind of interventions still remains very low (0.7%). As concerns the investment in forestry technologies, processing and marketing (8.6) they account for 12.1% of M8 and this can be considered an important percentage.
Table 3 shows also an important aspect concerning the implementation of forestry policies in Italy, represented by the re-modulation, that is the difference between the planned expenditure at the beginning of the programming period 2007-2013 and at the end of the period (October 2015). The re-modulation has been relevant for Measures 221 (first afforestation of agricultural land), 223 (first afforestation of non-agricultural land), 222 (first establishment of agroforestry systems) and 122 (improvement of the economic value of forests). This means that Italian regions have not realized the planned intervention during the time because of different reasons, such as a week normative framework, the scarce response from forest owners and forest enterprises, lack of competences and capabilities of the potential beneficiaries. One of the unsuccessful measures was Measure 222. It failed because of the innovative natures of this intervention and the difficulties in the realization of agroforestry systems. The planned budget for Measure 227 (non-productive investments) has been used as a whole while it has increased for Measure 226 (restoring forestry potential and introducing prevention actions) and for Measure 225 (forest-environment payments). On total, at the end of programming period 2007-2013 the total expenditures for forestry measures have been modified and 21.5% of the initial budget has been not used for forestry but transferred to other measures.
The budget re-modulation has probably oriented the planned budget for the next programming period: low level of resources have been allocated in those interventions interested by the higher rate of re-modulation.
Further information about the implementation of policy measures are included in the set of indicators established by the monitoring system (art.67, Reg.1305/2013). In particular, the output indicators give a first indication about the expected implementation of every sub-measure.
Following the analysis based on the available information in RDPs, Italy expects that about 64,800 hectares will be afforested (sub-meas. 8.1) and 2,090 hectares will be devoted to agroforestry systems (sub-meas. 8.2). About 4,146 beneficiaries will be supported for restoration and prevention projects (sub-meas. 8.3). Investments improving the resilience and environmental value of forests (sub-meas. 8.5) will involve 5,673 actions on 228,600 hectares while 293 actions will be supported for investments in forestry technologies (sub-meas. 8.6). About 82,000 hectares will receive a support for forest-environmental and climate services under Measure 15.
5. Conclusions
The analysis provides an overview of forestry measures (Measures 8 and 15) included in the new Regulation (EU) 1305/2013 of Rural Development for the programming period 2014-2020 and defined in the approved RDPs of the EU Member States. The analysis is based on the planned expenditures for both measures and on their contributions in reaching the specific targets defined in each priority and focus areas in which the new RD policy framework is structured.
This work is an additional contribution to the comprehension of future patterns in the orientation of forestry policies in the EU MS and the first step of a more accurate analysis that will be done in the framework of the monitoring and evaluation activity during the period of implementation of RD Plans.
Almost all the forestry measures implemented in the last programming period have been proposed again. They are aggregated into Measure 8 in order to simplify the administrative burden and allow the realization of integrated projects. This simplification is strategic, particularly in the strengthening of the relationships among the different subjects operating in the forestry chain and also in the perspective of a sustainable management of the forests.
In the next programming period, EU Member States will allocate 4.6% of the overall budget for Measure 8 (about 7,070 millions €9 and 0.3% for Measure 15 which is about 365 millions €). The relevance of the budget planned for both measures is highly variable, depending on the characteristics of forests and on national priorities. The majority of EU Member States have focused their programmed expenditures mostly on Measure 8. Only The Netherlands have applied for Measure 15 exclusively: a significant part of resources has been destined to this measure also in Italy and Hungary. 11 Member States have not activated M15 at all. The biggest share of funds for forestry measures is allocated in Spain (28.0%) and Italy (19.6%) which together represent almost half the total expenditure planned at EU level.
The different allocation of resources among the selected measures and sub-measures in the EU Member States reflects different views about the contribution of forestry to rural development and the spatial variability of perceptions and attitudes to forests. Looking to the priorities and focus areas, it seems that the interventions will be mainly oriented to reach the target of carbon conservation and sequestration, water management, biodiversity, HNV and landscapes as well as soil management. This distribution evidences the environmental approach of RD economy and policy: an overview in recent years points to the declining role of traditional land-using activities and the emergence of a more broad-based range of economic activities responding to the rise of new industries located in rural areas (Slee et al., 2004). In case of forests, the multifunctional role and the sustainable management is becoming more important than their productive role. With regard to this aspect, in Europe there are different situations. In Nordic countries there is still a strong orientation towards a production based rural economy: production and conservation functions have a prominent role than the multiple functions of forests (Hyttinen et al.2002). In contrast, in Central and Southern Europe, recreational and environmental services of forests reflect the wider values derived from forests.
This means that the instrument to evaluate the efficacy of forestry policies and their contribution to territorial economic development of rural areas must be based on new «mixed» and complementary methodologies able to take into account all the benefits provided by forest and their overall impact on rural economies. With this regard, the returns from timber are not always the most important component in the economic values of forestry but in some cases the non-market values and the impact on local economies must be taken into account.
With regard to the Italian case, the description of the general overview is based on the analysis of the 21 RD programmes. In Italy, in fact, regions are responsible for the management of forest policy and, as a consequence, there are 21 different schemes. This governance model has the advantage to permit a better use of resources and targeting of measures in accordance with the territorial specificity but, on the other side, it causes a lack of policy coordination at the national level. As in the rest of Europe, Italy has focused its future forestry policy mainly on Measure 8 while only 7 regions have applied for Measure 15.
In Italy, forestry measures will be targeted to reach mainly the objective of biodiversity, HNV, carbon conservation and sequestration even if the targets oriented to increase the farm performance seems to be more important than at the European average. The analysis of different sub-measures indicates that Italy will continue with the policy of afforestation and creation of woodland (25.2% of budget for M8), protection of forests against forest fires and other disasters (38.4%) as well as with improving the resilience and environmental value of forests (23.6%). The resources for agroforestry remain very low (0.7%). As for the previous programming period, the output indicators will be based on the number of hectares addressed by the different sub-measures or the number of interventions. These indicators are not adequate to estimate the potential contributions of forestry interventions to rural development and their efficiency on a global scale. As a consequence, it is desirable that further tools will be developed to explore the wider range of contributions (environmental, social and economic) of forestry measures to every single priority and focus area.
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