The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has issued a total of 116 forestry licences so far this month, however none of these allowed for new afforestation.
The number of afforestation licences issued so far this year remains at 10, according to the DAFM’s latest Forestry Licensing Dashboard for the week ending Friday, August 11.
Coillte felling licences accounted for the largest share at 74 licences issued so far in August. The DAFM also issued 39 private felling and three road licences.
A total area of 99ha has been planted in the first two weeks of this month, which brings up total afforestation so far this year to 1,119ha, the Forestry Licensing Dashboard shows.
3km of forest roads have been constructed in the first two weeks of August, bringing it up to 42km in total for the year to date. Licences issued this month allow for a further kilometre.
Over the past two weeks the DAFM approved the felling of 1,276ha or a total volume of 275,265m3. A total of 1,030 private and 858 Coillte felling licences have been issued for the year to date.
Licence approvals under the DAFM’s Interim Afforestation Scheme via General De Minimis remained at last month’s level of 288 licences.
However, the recently approved afforestation measure as part of Ireland’s new €1.3 billion Forestry Programme 2023-2027 will open for new applications in the coming weeks.
Forestry licensing ‘scandal’
In response to the latest figures, the Social, Economic Environmental Forestry Association of Ireland (SEEFA) said the “licensing scandal, now in its sixth year, is getting progressively worse”.
SEEFA requested all elected representatives to ask Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue how many people in the DAFM’s Forest Service were employed to deliver just 52 licences last week.
The organisation further asked all elected representatives to ask Minister McConalogue when he is going to publish the licensing plan for autumn 2023 and for the full year 2024.