 The European Union (EU) has paid farmers for afforestation since 1990, offering grants to turn farmland back into forest and payments for the management of forest.Between 1993 and 1997, EU afforestation policies made possible the re-forestation of over 5,000 square kilometres of land.A second program, running between 2000 and 2006, afforested more than 1,000 square kilometres of land (precise statistics not yet available).