Erstaufforstungen und Landespflege

If the changeover of cropland to other uses is going to be a seriously considered alternative for the EEC's agricultural surplus problems, policies for financial grants and a procedure of consideration have to be developed. The latter has to be sufficiently broadly outlined to permit large enough areas to be planted into trees. Furthermore, it must assure that serious disadvantages for the landscape's ecology are avoided. Finally, this procedure-through enforcible restrictions-has to bring about a high measure of adaptability to the actual situation of each individual case. We see the following possible approaches to achieve this objective: 1. Differentiation during the procedure of consideration according to the proportion of forest area; more restrictive criteria have to be applied in heavily wooded regions than in those that lack forest cover. 2. Differentiation according to the intensity of agricultural use: The more intensively the pieces of land selected for afforestation have been used, the more generously the permit procedure may be; and there will be fewer restrictions, too. 3. Realistic review of the types of afforestation applied for: i.e. one has to realize that reaching the potential natural stocking via afforestation will be the exception, and therefore the objective has to be -to supplement economically oriented timber types (with emphasis on coniferous tree species) with reasonable restrictions in such manner that they will develop aesthetically acceptable with provisions for possible silvicultural and landscape-ecological alterations. -to choose hardwood timber types which are suitable for the extreme conditions that exist for first tree crops on open areas. 4. Finally, negative changes of the appearance of the countryside have to be avoided by considering the outline of the afforestation areas, properly shaping of the edge of the forest, and applying appropriate tending techniques. 5. In Bavaria, the instruments for a suitable planning framework are provided with the subject planning according to article 15 of the state planning law, and the countryside planning as the typical cross-sectional planning.