The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) published its forestry licencing plan for 2024 today (Tuesday, December 19).
The plan estimates that DAFM will issue 4,200 new licences in 2024, and confirms that the department has capacity to issue sufficient licences to meet its annual target of 8,000ha of new forests by 2027.
DAFM have estimated that there will be 1,000 afforestation applications next year, which would be the required number of afforestation applications to be received in order to meet targets.
Minister of State for Land Use and Biodiversity at DAFM, Pippa Hackett said: “Since the new forestry programme opened in September, we have approved 73 afforestation licences, totaling 593 hectares.
“In addition, we have processed 92 applications already approved under the forestry programme 2014-2020 that hadn’t commenced planting and have now opted in to the new forestry programme 2023-2027.”
“Those licences cover an area of 808ha, meaning a total land area of 1,401ha has been made available for planting at the higher grant and premium rates since the opening of the new programme,” the minister added.
Forestry licencing plan
Landowners and farmers must obtain a licence from the department before planting or felling a forest.
This is to ensure that all forestry activity protects the environment, follows sustainable forest management practices and abides by the law.
“I am very confident that with the additional resources my department has put in place and building on the efficiencies made to date we will continue to outstrip demand in 2024 by issuing more licences than the number of applications we receive,” Minister Hackett said.
The annual data, up to the third week of December for 2023, shows that DAFM received 143 afforestation applications to date this year, with 85 licences issued.
A total of 890 private felling applications were made, while just under 1,400 licences were issued.
DAFM stated that it aims to issue afforestation licences within six months for “straight forward projects” – these are projects that are screened out from additional environmental assessment.
For more complicated sites, where additional environmental assessment is needed, the department estimates that it will take up to nine months to issue an afforestation licence.