A total of 22 afforestation licences were issued by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) in November 2023, the latest figures have shown.
The Forestry Licensing Dashboard up until Friday, November 24, showed that in the last week of November 2023, just three afforestation licences were issued, compared to 24 Coillte felling licences in the same week.
The latest figures on the area of forestry that has been planted so far this year is 1,615ha, meaning 8ha have been planted since the previous week.
Although the Climate Action Plan sets out an annual afforestation target of 8,000ha, only around 2,000ha are currently being delivered, DAFM figures show.
An area of 658ha would need to be planted in December to reach last year’s total of 2,273ha.
According to a spokesperson from the Social, Economic Environmental Forestry Association of Ireland (SEEFA), the three afforestation licences issued last week “will undoubtedly result in more job losses for private nurseries, foresters, and contractors”.
“In terms of climate change this rate would result in annual afforestation of 700ha. Less than 10% of the government climate action target.
“With less than seven years to meet these legally binding climate targets, Ireland looks set to face a significant financial penalty. And our natural world and biodiversity will be irreversibly damaged,” they added.
Earlier this year, SEEFA said that an average of 60 licences per week was “way below the target” of 100 per week, which was set by DAFM in 2022.
According to the Sinn Féin spokesperson on Agriculture, Deputy Claire Kerrane, the government is “failing” to deliver on forestry because afforestation licensing figures are continuing “to drop”, despite the roll out of the new Forestry Programme.
“Even where afforestation applications are being made, I am hearing from applicants that they are waiting for a long time for the file to be processed, with no timeframe for when they can expect to receive their licence,” Deputy Kerrane said.