Anyone who wants to reforest their forests, which have been attacked by drought and bark beetles, could apply for additional money from the country in 2021 - an initial interim balance.
Erfurt - Thuringia's state climate protection bonus has met with great interest from forest owners. From mid-June to the end of August, 2100 applications had already been submitted, the Ministry of the Environment announced on request in Erfurt. This means that applications totaling 13.9 million euros for private and communal forest companies have been received. In perspective, the money could be available in the second half of 2022, it said. A total of 15 million euros were available, which can be paid out as a bonus for binding CO2. The money could be requested once until September 2021.
The state government has shown that climate protection premiums are feasible for forest owners and represent a useful funding instrument, according to the Ministry of the Environment.
At the Agriculture Ministers' Conference (AMK) last week, the federal government announced that it would take up the Thuringian example and provide around 200 million euros for the climate protection services of the forest from the energy and climate fund from 2022.
"This AMK result is good news for those who own forests in Thuringia," said the ministry headed by Susanna Karawansky (Left).
Against this background, a budget for the climate protection premium is not initially planned in the draft for the state budget for 2022.
Karsten Spinner, Managing Director of the Association of Private Forest Owners, sees the optimism of the ministry as problematic in view of the still unclear distribution of the ministries of the future federal government.
"If the money doesn't come, then of course we have a problem," he said.
“We absolutely need the 15 million.” Around 42,000 hectares of forest are bare due to drought and bark beetles and have to be reforested;
around 100,000 hectares are to be converted in a climate-stable manner.
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In the previous year there were 500 million from the federal government - the pot was completely emptied.
"If the 200 million even exist, then you can work out how far they go," said Spinner.
As long as the federal funds are uncertain, the state will have to reissue the premium in 2022.
If the federal government does not implement the announcement, changes could also be made to the draft budget, the ministry announced without further explanation.
According to its own statements, the association represents the interests of private forest owners who manage a good 125,000 hectares of forest in Thuringia.
That is more than half (around 57 percent) of the entire forest area (220,000 hectares) in the Free State.
dpa
