Título VII. Del fomento de la forestacion, reforestacion, desarrollo rural e industrias forestales

The State shall grant incentives through the National Forest Institute, INAB, in coordination with the Ministry of Public Finance pursuant to this law; to landowners, including the municipalities, engaged in reforestation and maintenance projects on lands of forest vocation devoid of forest, as well as in the management of natural forests; and to social groups with juridical personality which, by virtue of legal arrangement, occupy land owned by the municipalities.

These incentives shall not apply to reforestation derived from commitments undertaken under the cases indicated in this law. Plantations derived from forest incentive programs are deemed voluntary planted forests.

The State shall annually allocate a line item in the Budget of Income and Expenditures of the Nation, to INAB to grant forest incentives, equivalent to 1% of the Budget of Ordinary Income of the State, through the Ministry of Public Finance.

The State, over a period of 20 years counted from the entry into force of this law, shall provide incentives for the establishment of plantations, their maintenance and the management of natural forests; this incentive shall be granted to owners of lands with forest vocation, only once, in accordance with the management and/or reforestation plan approved by INAB.

To be a beneficiary of the incentives established in this law, the Reforestation Plan or Management Plan shall be submitted to INAB, upon prior qualification of lands of forest vocation. INAB shall issue a decision within a time limit of thirty days.

The incentives shall be paid to the owner by the Ministry of Finance upon INAB indicating that the plantation is established and based on compliance with the Reforestation Plan or Management Plan. The INAB certificate shall be delivered to the beneficiary within a time limit of thirty days from its request.

The minimum area specified in an application to obtain the forest incentive shall be two hectares, in the same municipality, belonging to one or several owners.

For supervision and administration, the Ministry of Public Finance shall assign and transfer to INAB nine percent (9%) of the total amount of the incentives granted, which shall be made effective simultaneously at the time of granting the incentive to the beneficiary.

Such resources shall become part of the Private Forestry Fund.

Costs of reforestation, establishment, maintenance of voluntary forests and management of natural forests. The fixed cost per hectare, by region and species, for the execution of reforestation projects, both with regard to the establishment of the plantation and its maintenance; and, of the management of natural forests, shall be determined by the Board of Directors of INAB, on the basis of the actual cost by appraisal. The Board of Directors shall annually fix the foregoing values, which must be published in the official gazette to be in force from the first of September of each year.

The reforestation project that is a beneficiary of fiscal incentives shall enjoy incentives for its maintenance for up to a maximum of five (5) years, a period that must be authorized in the approval of the respective Management Plan.

The Board of Directors of INAB shall determine the species of forest trees and the regions where reforestation through forest incentives shall be established, taking into consideration both the species and regions of high forest productivity; in addition, in this context it shall set the necessary priorities that tend to mitigate or contribute to resolving the environmental, energy or productive crisis.

INAB shall annually allocate 80% of the total amount of incentives to reforestation and maintenance of voluntary forests and 20% to management of natural forests.

INAB shall establish a credit guarantee program for forestry activity, through which the credits granted by the banking system for the promotion of the forestry sector to the small owners referred to in Article 83 of this Law, which the Board of Directors shall have to consider in the annual plans, shall be backed, using resources from the Private Forestry Fund or other sources; the regulation must regulate the procedures of the credit guarantee program for forestry activity of the small owner.

INAB shall distribute annually up to 50% of the total amount of incentives to reforestation projects and maintenance of voluntary forests as well as to the management of natural forests, to small owners who submit projects to be carried out in areas of less than fifteen (15) hectares. The remainder of the incentives shall be granted to projects with areas greater than fifteen (15) hectares. No project may benefit from more than one percent of the total annual amount of forest incentives.

The Private Forestry Fund is hereby created, which shall be constituted by the tax, economic and financial resources generated by the application of this law, donations, specific credits and those acquired for administrative services, supervision and administration of the incentives provided for in Article 71 of this law, evaluations or under any other title. It shall be administered exclusively by INAB, and its funds may be deposited in any bank of the system, in a special account.

The fees established by the regulation for administrative services, whether for monitoring, licenses, evaluations or any other activity necessary for the supervision of compliance with this law or by reason of the uses derived from the concessions, shall become part of the Private Forestry Fund of the Institute.

The Regulation of the Private Forestry Fund shall be prepared jointly by the National Forest Institute and the Ministry of Public Finance, approved by Governmental Agreement.

The Private Forestry Fund may be allocated solely to the promotion of forestry development programs, the creation of industrial forest stands, management of natural forests, restoration of watersheds, agroforestry systems, maintenance of reforestation, research and to the execution of technical studies, forestry training, agroforestry education and advisory services. The execution of this fund shall be carried out in accordance with annual plans approved by the Board of Directors of INAB. Under the following criteria and institutions for the best fulfillment of what is stipulated in this article, for that purpose it shall distribute the Private Forestry Fund as follows:

a)Seventy percent (70%) for its own administrative services and programs; and,

b)Thirty percent (30%) for the program for strengthening agroforestry education distributed as follows: twenty percent (20%) for the National Central School of Agriculture, ENCA, three percent (3%) for the Institute of Agroforestry Sciences and Wildlife, ICAVIS, of Poptún, El Petén, and seven percent (7%) for the permanent scholarship program administered by INAB.