Forest Industries Ireland (FII) has expressed “serious concern” over what it calls “ongoing underperformance” of payments to incentivise new forest planting.
The industry group was responding to figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) this week which, according to the FII, “made for grim reading”.
The data shows that the payments under the main afforestation programmes were €62 million in 2021 – a decrease of 42% on 2010, when payments were €108 million.
FII said that this drop in payments is “causing grave concern for forestry industry stakeholders”.
Mark McAuley, the director of FII, said yesterday (Wednesday, June 29): “These figures from the CSO illustrate continuing failure of the government’s policy to plant new woodland.
“The decline in tree planting over the last decade is in direct contradiction with the need to diversify our agricultural model and take up the battle against climate change,” McAuley added.
He acknowledged that ministers are “very concerned” about the underperformance of the forestry programme.
“What we need to see now is a clear decision to significantly increase the financial incentives under the new forestry schemes due at the end of the year.
“It is difficult to understand how a core government policy in terms of fighting climate change can be allowed to be undermined by a lack of delivery on forestry,” McCauley argued.
He called on senior cabinet members and party leaders to ensure that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine “delivers a revitalised forestry programme that is capable of delivering the thousands of hectares of new forests that are required to meet the carbon targets in the government’s Climate Action Plan”.
The CSO data released on Monday (June 27) also shows that payments for forest roads have also declined significantly, dropping from €4.2 million in 2011 to just €2.9 million in 2021.
These payments covered only 73km of road last year, compared to 116km in 2011.