The 8,000ha annual target for afforestation under the Climate Action Plan and Ag Climatise is “currently unachievable” according to one TD.
Sinn Féin TD Martin Browne was speaking after a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine yesterday (Wednesday, April 14), where he criticized the Department of Agriculture’s handling of the forestry licencing system.
The committee was hearing from Teagasc director Prof. Gerry Boyle at the time.
In the Climate Action Plan and Ag Climatise, the expansion of forests by 8,000ha per year is cited as one of the ambitions in sequestering or absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
However, Browne warned that this target for afforestation is under threat due to the licencing system.
“This target is currently unachievable because of the dysfunctional forestry licencing process, and poor overall management by the department which puts off new entrants to the sector,” he said.
“At this week’s meeting of the agriculture committee, I raised the matter with Prof. Gerry Boyle of Teagasc who said that, in terms of carbon storage, we are fortunate right now to be benefitting from the high-level of plantation that was undertaken 30 years ago,” Browne noted.
Boyle said that we will continue to benefit from this up to 2030 but after that we will be relying on the amount of plantation taking place right now.
The current planting, Browne highlighted, is “way below the national target and way below the levels that are needed to replenish the forest in terms of carbon sequestration”.
He argued: “This is another example of how the abandonment of the important forestry sector not only has impacts now but will have consequences in the future.
“Not alone have our foresters been let down by the manner in which the department has been overseeing forestry, but our ambitions for climate action have also been made even more difficult,” he added.
Concluding his remarks, the Tipperary TD said: “Reform of the forestry sector must speed up and be purposeful, otherwise the sector will continue to suffer right now and our climate action ambitions will be put at a disadvantage in the future”.