Afforestation needs to be integrated into the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and all agri-environmental schemes to increase forestry to required levels, according to the Social, Economic, Environmental Forestry Association of Ireland (SEEFA).
Lessons need to be learned from the last CAP where less than 2% of the participants in the Green Low-Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS) engaged in the afforestation scheme, according to SEEFA secretary Marina Conway.
The recently published The Economics of Afforestation and Management in Ireland: Future Prospects and Plans report outlines opportunities and challenges of delivering national forestry goals to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Afforestation of 18,000ha per annum is needed to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 under the Climate Action Plan, however Ireland is currently far from achieving 18% forestry land cover by 2050, the report found.
Although the plan outlines planting as the single largest land-based mitigation measure available to reach this target under the Climate Action Plan, the existing fall off in afforestation levels risks carbon sequestration.
Afforestation targets
The true cost to the citizens of Ireland arising from the failed afforestation targets is now beyond dispute at €400 million per year as outlined in the independent report, the SEEFA said.
Report recommendations to help achieve afforestation targets must be the foundation for a new era of forestry in Ireland, and will restore confidence in the sector, SEEFA public relations officer, Paddy Bruton and chair Teige Ryan said.
“This will save taxpayers billions of euro and provide farmers and rural areas with substantial income; deliver timber for future home construction; increased biodiversity; improved air and water quality; and renewable fuel to heat homes and generate energy while at the same time absorbing carbon.
“The report clearly outlines that the higher the area that is afforested, the lower the reduction in animal numbers required to meet national carbon neutrality targets,” according to the SEEFA.
Research presented by Prof. Cathal O’Donoghue from the University of Galway has the full support of the association which represents the majority of private sector forestry companies in Ireland.
Carbon emission reduction targets cannot be met without a major afforestation strategy, therefore it is a national imperative that the next Forestry Programme commencing in January 2023 addresses the report recommendations, the association said.