Minister of State with responsibility for forestry at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Pippa Hackett has today (Wednesday, July 13) announced the commencement of Forestry Environmental Report Grant payments.
Payments have commenced for licensed applicants and their registered forester, as well as for all processed applications in 2022.
An environment grant will be paid if a report from an ecologist or archaeologist is submitted as part of an application, according to the DAFM.
The amount of grant aid is weighted towards the first few hectares, with €450/ha for the first hectare; €400 for the second hectare; €350 for the third hectare; and €50/ha from 4 hectares capped at 20 hectares.
Announcing the commencement of payments today, Minister Hackett said:
“I am pleased to announce the first payments of an Environment Report Grant as part of the costs of establishing a forest, recognising the cost associated with making an application.
“It’s a direct result of discussions with stakeholders under Project Woodland about the additional costs of preparing and submitting an afforestation application.”
The minister added that the proposal originated in the 2019 MacKinnon report – which included recommendations on the process of approving afforestation proposals – that is being implemented through Project Woodland.
Minister Hackett also welcomed the recent training provided to the forestry sector by the DAFM to facilitate the submission of habitat maps. The training aimed at removing additional costs to applicants of afforestation licences.
“This is all about facilitating an increasing number of afforestation applications, and ultimately more trees in the ground,” Minister Hackett said.