The Salvadoran Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock will begin the process this month to select a firm to handle the administration of subsidies for new forestry plantings. The distribution of subsidies to encourage landowners to invest in tree species will be ready in August, Julio Olano, the ministry's forestry director, told Tierramérica.

El Salvador's environmental authorities approved a fund last month of more than six million dollars to support new plantations of forests and to help pay for those carried out in the past decade. Companies will receive up to 375 dollars per new hectare planted with at least 1,111 trees.

Expansion of tree coverage is vital for protecting the biodiversity and water supplies of this Central American country, which holds 915,000 hectares of forest-suitable land, says Olano.