Farmers who own forestry have descended on the Convention Centre in Dublin today (Wednesday, July 14) to protest over the ongoing issue of the forestry licences backlog.
Organised by the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), the protest seeks to “highlight the crisis in the forest sector and the need for emergency legislation to reform the licence system”, the organisation says.
Commenting about the licences, ahead of the demonstration – which kicked off at 10:00a.m today – IFA Farm Forestry Chairman Vincent Nally said:
“Forest owners are beyond frustrated with the system and the never-ending red tape that is preventing them from realising the value of their investment.
“We are here today to let the Minister [of State with responsibility for forestry Pippa Hackett] know that farmers have had enough.
“If there is any chance of restoring farmer confidence in forestry, the minister must act now,” Nally stressed.
He said it’s over five months since Minister Hackett announced Project Woodland. Although there has been a lot of work in the background, the time for talking is over, the IFA chairman added.
“We need the minister to introduce emergency legislation to deal with the licence backlog once and for all.
“Many farmers are waiting over two years for a licence. The Forestry Act says that a farmer should have to wait no longer than four months for a decision.”
Nally said the government needs to introduce a system that actively supports farmers to plant and manage forests at farm scale, with a proportionate regulatory burden that reflects the size, the type of operation, and which guarantees approval within an agreed timeframe.
“Restoring farmers’ confidence in forestry, and supporting farm forestry once more, is the only option if Ireland is to achieve the ambitious annual afforestation targets set out in the 2019 Climate Action Plan of 8,000ha,” Nally said.
Forests account for 11% or 770,020 ha of the total land area of Ireland, with 49% in private ownership, the IFA notes. The value of the industry to the national economy is €2.3 billion. It supports 12,000 rural jobs and provides important biodiversity and ecosystem services.
The most recent forecast predicts that the annual potential roundwood supply will increase from 4.9 million in 2021 to 7.9 million cubic metres by 2035, with the majority of the extra supply coming from farm forests, the organisation concludes.