The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine's (DAFM's) targets to reverse the decline in woodland will be discussed at a series of meetings for farmers and landowners around the country.

A key goal of DAFM is to afforest 440 million trees by 2040, which would require planting approximately 22 million trees per year.

As part of the push towards new woodland, DAFM is engaging farmer enterprises with afforestation promotion schemes through third-party groups.

Friends of Little Woods, a community group based in Co Fermanagh, is among several organisations to receive funding to put on promotion programmes.

The group will gather forest advisers, foresters, accountants, and forest service companies to tell farmers how to take up the DAFM grants.

It will also bring in small businesses such as meditation and yoga coaches interested in renting woodland settings for their businesses.

The Friends of Little Woods' ‘Wealth, Wellbeing and Woodland’ programme will deliver eight in-person engagement events across the country to inform participants of the economic benefits of forestry at an individual level.

The benefits include: tax benefits; timber as a source of income; creation of an asset; and farm diversification, as well as the benefits to the wider rural economy.

The programme will visit the following locations:

Sligo: September 11, Raddison Blu Hotel;
Letterkenny: September 13, Raddison Blu Hotel;
Cavan: October 10, Farnham Estate;
Roscommon: October 11, Abbey Hotel;
Castlebar: November 7, Breaffy House;
Tullamore: November 8, Tullamore Court Hotel;
Tipperary:  December 5, Ballykisteen Hotel;
Wicklow: December 6, Glenview Hotel.

Speakers will include forest advisers; foresters; forest service companies; nurseries; accountants, and businesses that will go on to use the woodland. 

The aim is to give farmers and landowners a concise overview of tree planting grants and connect them with the people that will help to make their new woodland project a reality.