Field data collection for the National Forest Inventory (NFI) will be completed in 2021 and results are due to be published in 2022, according to Minister of State with responsibility for forestry, Pippa Hackett.
Commenting on the NFI, minister Hackett said that “field data collection is ongoing on the fourth National Forest Inventory, undertaken by my department”.
National Forest Inventory 2017
The last NFI in 2017, which is the latest report available, shows that while Cork has the largest forest area at 90,000ha – it still only represents 12% of forest cover in the county.
Leitrim has one third the forest area of Cork, at approximately 30,000ha, but its forest cover is substantially higher at almost 19%.
County Forest area (ha) % forest cover within county Carlow 8,403 9.4 Cavan 18,032 9.3 Clare 55,106 17.2 Cork 90,020 12.1 Donegal 55,534 11.4 Dublin 6,011 6.5 Galway 60,605 9.9 Kerry 57,540 12.1 Kildare 10,396 6.1 Kilkenny 19,825 9.6 Laois 26,462 15.4 Leitrim 30,061 18.9 Limerick 27,933 10.4 Longford 9,160 8.4 Louth 2,428 2.9 Mayo 51,325 9.2 Meath 13,326 5.7 Monaghan 5,997 4.6 Offaly 29,332 14.7 Roscommon 28,311 11.1 Sligo 20,980 11.4 Tipperary 50,241 11.8 Waterford 26,949 14.7 Westmeath 15,163 8.2 Wexford 14,620 6.2 Wicklow 36,262 17.9 Total 770,020
Forest ownership
Within the national forest estate there are three main forest ownership categories:
- Public: all state-owned forests, mainly Coillte;
- Private (grant-aided): private afforested land which was in receipt of either grant and/or premium since 1980;
- Private (non grant-aided): private forests not in receipt of grant-aid post 1980. Includes areas semi-natural forests that have regenerated naturally and other long-standing plantations on private estate holdings.
In 2017, 50.8% of forests were in state ownership, a reduction from 57% in 2006 – primarily due to private sector afforestation in the intervening period.
The public forest area consists of 391,357ha; comprising 357,290ha of stocked forest land and 34,060ha of forest open area.
Coillte owns 380,156ha of the public forest area according to the Forest Statistics report.
Just under three quarters of the national forest estate consists of trees of 30 years old or less.
Agri-environment schemes
Since the introduction of agri-environmental schemes in 1994, 6,605km of new hedgerows and more than 3.7 million trees have been established on non-forest land.
The schemes included Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS); Agri-Environnent Options Scheme (AEOS); and Green Low Carbon Agri-Environment (GLAS).
Farmers accounted for 81% of private lands afforested between 1980 and 2020. In the Afforestation Grant and Premium Scheme (2014-2020) changes were implemented to the differentiation of farmers and non-farmers in terms of premium payments.
Prior to 2014, it was necessary for land owners to qualify as farmers to be eligible for an additional five premium payments.
Farmers and non-farmers are now eligible for the same duration of premium payments. The category ‘non-farmer’ includes landowners who, in general, are not actively farming.
However, the non-farmer category includes retired farmers, family members of farmers who might have inherited land but who work outside of farming, and other landowners who may have recently bought the land.
In the Forest Statistics report, it’s estimated that the full economic value of the forest sector in the subject year – 2012 – was €2.3 billion, when both indirect and induced effects were taken into account.