An estimated 50% of all farms would have a higher income from forestry than agriculture if they planted the Sitka Spruce tree, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture has been told.
Professor Cathal O’Donoghue from the University of Galway, BiOrbic SFI research centre, also told committee members that about 30% of all farms would have a higher return if they were to plant broadleaf trees.
But Prof O’Donoghue said when it comes to dairy farms only 11% would have a higher return from forestry.
In contrast nearly 80% of cattle rearing farms and 70% of cattle finishing farms would have a higher return from forestry.
The University of Galway professor is the author of a report: “The economics of afforestation and management in Ireland: future prospects and plans”, which was funded by the consulting firm, AuxiliaGroup.
In this report Prof O’Donoghue states that there has been a substantial decline in tree planting in Ireland in recent years with 2021 planting at 8% of peak in 1995.
He highlighted to the Oireachtas Committee that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s goal is to have 18% land cover in forestry by 2050.
Carbon net zero 2050 goal
But Prof O’Donoghue said the recent fall off in tree planting creates a significant risk of missing the national carbon net zero 2050 goal.
He believes that to hit the 2050 target planting rates in Ireland would need to be in the region of 18,000 hectares per year to achieve this goal.
He told the committee that it was important to gauge the impact of missing afforestation targets.
Prof O’Donoghue outlined that missing a target by 6,000 hectares “costs more than €400 million at a €100 carbon price over a 40 year forest rotation, while the cost is over €1 billion over a full rotation if the target is missed by 16,000 hectare”.
He also warned members of the committee that unless Ireland adopts a major afforestation strategy, “it will be impossible to achieve carbon neutrality objectives using rewetting or agriculture alone unless there was a major reduction in animal numbers with consequential economic impacts.”
In his report Prof O Donoghue said that as a major national strategic objective, the afforestation policy has “been a great success”.
“With 690,000 hectares planted in 100 years 1922-2022, reaching 11% of the total land area. It is thus the largest land-use change since the foundation of the state”.
But he believes it is now time for sector to be given added political impetus and has recommended that a new forestry development agency be established to achieve Ireland’s national carbon neutrality goals.
Senator Victor Boyhan, who is a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture supports the call for a new agency to be established.
“It is abundantly clear that there is merit in exploring new government structures in order to undertake a focused and target driven leadership role in developing the forestry sector to its full potential and deliver on government targets for the industry”.
Meanwhile Independent TD for Laois Offaly, Carol Nolan, said Prof O’Donoghue had demonstrated the evidence to radically revise the current approach to afforestation and that financial incentives were needed to “ensure the stability and viability of the sector”.
Nolan said she is also concerned by his assessment that without a new and enhanced package of financial supports, the sector will collapse.
According to the Sinn Féin spokesperson on agriculture, Matt Carthy, the forestry sector in Ireland has “been on its knees for five long years due to licensing backlogs and a drop in afforestation rates to the lowest level since the 1940s.”
Carthy believes this will have “huge implications for our rural economy and Ireland’s climate action targets”.