An area of just over 1,600ha of forestry has been planted so far this year, according to latest figures from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
The Forestry Licensing Dashboard up until Friday, November 17, shows that 19 afforestation licences have been issued by the DAFM so far this month.
These licences allow for a further 158ha of plantings, which will add to the 1,607ha planted year to date. However, Ireland remains far below its own planting target.
Although the Climate Action Plan sets out an annual afforestation target of 8,000ha, only around 2,000ha are currently being delivered, DAFM figures show.
An area of 666ha would need to be planted over the next weeks to reach last year’s total of 2,273ha. However, this seems unlikely given the slow rate of planting to date.
Forestry licences
In total 2,879 licences have been issued so far in 2023, including 56 for new plantings. The private felling sector received 1,325 and Coillte 1,301 licences.
The 49 felling licences issued last week, of which 26 went to the private sector and 23 to Coillte, allow for thinning of 226.86ha and clear felling of 364.10ha.
The DAFM also issued 197 licences year to date which allow for the construction of 72km of forest roads. This is in addition to the 65km already constructed in 2023.
Afforestation
“The forest service continues to thwart private sector afforestation,” the Social, Economic Environmental Forestry Association of Ireland (SEEFA) said.
This will have “disastrous consequences” for Ireland’s climate years after Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue’s office term, SEEFA said.
The body representing the private forestry sector also criticised that a licensing plan for the remainder of 2023 and next year still needs to be published by the DAFM.
In the latest AgriFocus podcast, Agriland spoke to the co-author of the paper “Putting landowners front and centre” recently published by the Agricultural Consultants Association (ACA).
Agriculture and land use consultant Andy Dunne, who has been working in the sector for almost 30 years, spoke about why forestry must be a “real and straightforward choice for farmers”.