The Irish Timber Growers’ Association (ITGA) has called for nationally coordinated forest advisory services.
This service should be part of additional supports for farmers and landowners in order to navigate tree planting schemes that will be put in place under the upcoming forestry programme, the ITGA said.
The group was reacting to the Climate Change Advisory Council’s (CCAC) Annual Review 2023, which was published yesterday (Tuesday, July 25).
According to the ITGA, planting trees and appropriate management of the existing forest estate will be necessary in achieving national climate change targets.
The association said that a national forest advisory service “should ideally utilise the private forestry sector’s expertise with its established infrastructure and which, with adequate funding, can promote and drive the new forestry programme”.
“While the Forestry Knowledge Transfer Scheme is an ideal initiative to commence this process, additional measures should be developed to support ‘boots on the ground’ and to work with Teagasc in driving uptake of the various forest creation and support schemes,” the ITGA said.
The group backed the CCAC view that the government should actively support income diversification opportunities for farmers.
The ITGA also pointed to the CCAC review’s statement that the greater area that is afforested, the larger the number of livestock that can be maintained on the land while meeting the national carbon neutrality objective.
Donal Whelan of the ITGA commented: “This is potentially a win-win for the farming community and for climate change mitigation, where farmers are adequately funded to plant trees and get remunerated for the public goods they provide.”
These public goods, Whelan said, include carbon sequestration, timber production for building timber-framed homes; or a range of forest ecosystem services.
The ITGA also said there should be a focus on the active management of existing woodland, as well as the establishment of new forests.
A focus on managing woodland should include ongoing support for biodiversity and ecosystem services for the current forest area, according to the association.
The timber growers’ group said that this should be achieved through both funding supports and reducing the administration required to secure felling licences for normal forest management activities, such as standard thinning operations in forests.