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Sarkozy invests millions in forestry industry
27/05/2009
In a bid to safeguard 450,000 jobs and increase production in France’s forestry business, President Sarkozy has assigned between EUR100 million and EUR150 million to help the industry.
The funds will come from cash already put aside for aeronautical, automobile and biotechnology industries and is intended to help the country’s forests to become more productive domestically. Currently France’s forestry industry is one of Europe’s largest, producing 10 million cubic metres of wood each year, almost all of which it exports abroad.
The industry currently generates revenues of around EUR40 billion a year and directly employs 170,000 workers. However, it was hit recently by storm Klaus in January 2009, which flattened some 685,000 hectares of forest.
Sarkozy’s funding project is intended to help create more forests and help finance sawmill improvements, which have been slow coming as the industry has not been investing in new technologies.
France’s forests are also set to benefit from new tax regulations which are intended to help boost biofuels by improving the tax environment for wood fuels, in a similar way to the tax aid that the wind energy industry enjoys.
The funds will come from cash already put aside for aeronautical, automobile and biotechnology industries and is intended to help the country’s forests to become more productive domestically. Currently France’s forestry industry is one of Europe’s largest, producing 10 million cubic metres of wood each year, almost all of which it exports abroad.
The industry currently generates revenues of around EUR40 billion a year and directly employs 170,000 workers. However, it was hit recently by storm Klaus in January 2009, which flattened some 685,000 hectares of forest.
Sarkozy’s funding project is intended to help create more forests and help finance sawmill improvements, which have been slow coming as the industry has not been investing in new technologies.
France’s forests are also set to benefit from new tax regulations which are intended to help boost biofuels by improving the tax environment for wood fuels, in a similar way to the tax aid that the wind energy industry enjoys.
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