Article 34 Forest-environmental and climate services and forest conservationE1

Support under this measure shall be granted per hectare of forest to public and private forest-holders and other private law and public bodies and their associations who undertake, on a voluntary basis, to carry out operations consisting of one or more forest-environment and climate commitments. In the case of state owned forests, support may only be granted if the body managing such a forest is a private body or a municipality.

For forest holdings above a certain threshold to be determined by F1the relevant authority in their rural development programmes, support under paragraph 1 shall be conditional on the presentation of the relevant information from a forest management plan or equivalent instrument in line with sustainable forest management as defined by the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe of 1993.

Payments shall cover only those commitments going beyond the relevant mandatory requirements established by F2... relevant national law. All such requirements shall be identified in the programme.

Commitments shall be undertaken for a period of between five and seven years. However, where necessary and duly justified, the relevant authority may determine a longer period in their rural development programmes for particular types of commitments.

Payments shall compensate beneficiaries for all or part of the additional costs and income foregone resulting from the commitments made. Where it is necessary they may also cover transaction costs to a value of up to 20 % of the premium paid for the forest-environment commitments. Support shall be limited to the maximum amount laid down in Annex II.

In duly justified cases for operations concerning environmental conservation, support may be granted as a flat-rate or one-off payment per unit for commitments to renounce commercial use of trees and forests, calculated on basis of additional costs incurred and income foregone.

Support may be provided to public and private entities for the conservation and promotion of forest genetic resources for operations not covered under paragraphs 1, 2 and 3.

In order to ensure the efficient use of F3support for rural development, the F4appropriate authority may make regulations concerning the types of operations eligible for support under paragraph 4 of this Article.