Article 24U.K.Prevention and restoration of damage to forests from forest fires and natural disasters and catastrophic events
1.Support under point (c) Article 21(1) shall be granted to private and public forest- holders and other private law and public bodies and their associations and shall cover the costs for:
(a)the establishment of protective infrastructure. In the case of firebreaks, support may also cover aid contributing to maintenance costs. No support shall be granted to agricultural related activities in areas covered by agri-environment commitments;
(b)local, small scale prevention activities against fire or other natural hazards; including the use of grazing animals;
(c)establishing and improving forest fire, pest and diseases monitoring facilities and communication equipment; and
(d)restoring forest potential damaged from fires and other natural disasters including pests, diseases as well as catastrophic events and climate change related events.
2.In the case of preventive actions concerning pests and diseases, the risk of a relevant disaster occurrence must be supported by scientific evidence and acknowledged by scientific public organisations. Where relevant, the list of species of organisms harmful to plants which may cause a disaster must be provided in the programme.
Eligible operations shall be consistent with the forest protection plan established by the Member States. For holdings above a certain size, to be determined by the Member States in the programme, support 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 detailing the preventive objectives.
Forest areas classified as medium to high forest fire risk according to the forest protection plan established by the Member States shall be eligible for support relating to forest fire prevention.
3.Support under point (d) of paragraph 1 shall be subject to the formal recognition by the competent public authorities of Member States that a natural disaster has occurred and that that disaster, or measures adopted in accordance with Directive 2000/29/EC to eradicate or contain a plant disease or pest has caused the destruction of at least 20 % of the relevant forest potential.
4.No support under this measure shall be granted for loss of income resulting from the natural disaster.
Member States shall ensure that overcompensation as a result of the combination of this measure and other national or Union support instruments or private insurance schemes is avoided.