Appraisal of aids as provided by Rule 225 (Council Regulation (EC) no. 1698/2005) in Tuscany Region-Methodology, procedures and results.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate a methodology to determine the lost revenue and increased costs resulting from the assumption of forest-environment commitments, as provided by rule 225 (Council Regulation (EC) No. 1698/2005) of the measure defined by the Tuscany Region. The aim is therefore to determine the appropriateness of the payments provided by European Community measures. Regulation (EC) No. 1698/2005 regards mainly land management and contributes to sustainable development by en-couraging farmers and forest holders to employ methods of land use compatible with the need to preserve the natural environment and landscape and protect and improve natural resources. This Rule covers sup-port for non-productive investments linked to the achievement of agro or forest-environmental commit-ments or the achievement of other agri-environmental objectives, as well as measures aimed at improving forestry resources with an environmental objective (support for the first forestation of agricultural land, establishment of agroforestry systems or restoring forestry potential and preventing natural disasters). We have worked by analyzing each of the commitments required by individual actions and checking their impact on forest regional management; we have calculated the additional costs and the lost revenue re-sulting from the assumption of commitments.