According to a statement from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Rural Development (MAFDR), this "new cycle of forest support" consists of the opening of "regionalised competitions" whose priority is the recovery of fire-ravaged areas and converting low-productivity areas of eucalyptus into areas with slow-growing species.

"This is a paradigm shift in support for forests, which will help to balance the distribution of aid across the land, since we are for the first time launching regionalised competitions," explained the secretary of state for forests and rural development, Miguel Freitas.

According to Freitas, "the competition takes place in two phases, with the first one opening today, with a competition for the north of the country, worth ten million euros, and another for the centre, worth twelve million euros."

The idea is to provide support specifically to the two regions of the country "where property [ownership] structure presents greater difficulties in obtaining this type of aid."

That was one of the reasons for the establishment of "this mechanism of positive discrimination, which also focuses specifically on the recovery of the inland pine forest, for which a portion of the funds allocated to the Centre region will be channelled," the secretary of state added, citing an amount of €4 million for this purpose.

The contest opens today and will be open until October 12th.

In the second phase, a further €14 million is to be offered for Lisbon and the Tagus Valley, the Alentejo and Algarve regions.