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The retreat of the bark beetle calamity in the Czech Republic determined the government to stop paying compensation to foresters last year for damage to forests by bark beetles. On the contrary, collected billions of crowns from the highly profitable Forests of the Czech Republic (Lesy \u010cR), thus exceeding the amounts paid in subsidies. In addition, the National Economic Council of the Government proposes to cut subsidies for forest restoration even more. But Czech foresters warn that the calamity is not over, and they want support for the restoration of damaged areas.<\/span><\/p>\n Last year, approximately half of the state subsidies were received by Lesy \u010cR , which manages approximately half of the country's forests. The company collected about 1.5 billion crowns (58 million euros), of which 200 million (7.7 million euros) was compensation for bark beetle damage. The state provided compensation because the price of wood fell due to the calamity and forestry companies had higher costs. Compensation was then always paid for the previous year.<\/p>\n But the year before last, bark beetle compensation for state forests amounted to much more, roughly 900 million crowns (34.6 million euros), and reached the highest amount ever in 2020, when almost 2.3 billion ( 8.4 million euros) went to the company's account. But now the bark beetle subsidies are over.<\/p>\n \"The receipt of applications for compensation for the reduced price of firewood due to the effects of the bark beetle calamity has not been started for any forest owners since 2021,\" said Vojt\u011bch B\u00edl\u00fd, a spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture.<\/p>\n As a result, the state's total subsidies to foresters, and not only state subsidies, fell significantly. While in 2020 the total amount of support to other owners was 5.8 billion crowns (223.4 million euros), in 2021 it was 3.8 billion (approximately 146.2 million euros) and last year 2.6 billion (100 million euros).<\/p>\n In the past year, mainly thanks to the Forests of the Czech Republic, the amount that the state budget receives thanks to forests has increased significantly. In November alone, the state-owned enterprise, which in the first three quarters multiplied its gross profit year-on-year to 7.39 billion crowns (284.3 million euros), sent a levy of 3.81 billion crowns (146.8 million euros) to the state budget as a result of the government's decision.<\/p>\n Including taxes, the state treasury received more than 8.2 billion crowns (316.4 million euros) from the company last year. Over the past ten years, it has already been approximately 36 billion crowns (approximately 1.4 billion euros). The only years when the company did not contribute to the state as part of the extraordinary levy were the period from 2019 to 2021 due to the calamity.<\/p>\n However, the National Economic Council of the Government (NERV) in its proposals on where the state can save , recommends that subsidies, especially to state-owned enterprises, be further reduced. The author of the proposal, economist Ale\u0161 Rod, advises to cut especially so-called non-investment transfers, i.e. expenses related to the maintenance and operation of the company's assets.<\/p>\n \"We can consider them mainly contributions to mitigate the effects of the bark beetle calamity, as well as part of the subsidies for water management. Potential savings could range from tens to hundreds of millions of crowns,\" said Rod.<\/p>\n Contributions to mitigate the effects of the bark beetle calamity are no longer being paid, and according to spokeswoman Eva Jouklov\u00e1, Lesy \u010cR intends to receive no more than half a billion crowns for non-investment transfers. Last year, state foresters received subsidies in the amount of 1.3 billion in addition to compensation for bark beetles.<\/p>\n Czech foresters are against cutting subsidies, because the coming years may be some of the most difficult for them in the last few decades. \"The bark beetle calamity is far from over, although it is mitigating, but unfortunately the economic recession, significant energy price hikes and high inflation come into play,\" said Ji\u0159\u00ed Svoboda, chairman of the Association of Owners of Municipal, Private and Church Forests (SVOL), at the beginning of the year.<\/p>\n He also pointed out that some owners have nothing to harvest today, because their forests were destroyed by the bark beetle and they have nowhere to take money for their restoration. \"A number of owners will be dependent on state aid,\" added Svoboda.<\/p>\n Environmentalists in particular criticize the current form of subsidies. According to them, it does not lead to the goal set out in the government's program statement. It explicitly mentions that it will not treat forests as a wood factory , and at the same time promises climate change resistant stands.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The retreat of the bark beetle calamity in the Czech Republic determined the government to stop paying compensation to foresters last year for damage to forests by bark beetles. On the contrary, collected billions of crowns from the highly profitable … Continue reading