A community-led approach to forestry would make a huge difference in terms of planting rates in Ireland, environmental research fellow at UCD Dr Cara Augustenborg says.

The target for Ireland is to plant 8,000ha of forest per year, something we are so far failing to meet.

Augustenborg was speaking at the ‘Forestry: Real Solutions to Ireland’s Climate Emergency’ conference hosted by Ibec body Forest Industries Ireland (FII) in Glasnevin, Co Dublin, on Monday.

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Despite the premiums granted for planting, farmers are put off by the fact that land must be permanently converted once planted, Dr Augustenborg says.

She added that lessons learned in the wind energy debate need to be employed in order to get more people to buy into forestry as a solution to the climate change emergency.

She says there are four pillars to social acceptance:

  • 1 Perception of need – “Forestry is lucky in that the government has accepted there is a climate emergency and people view trees as an effective option. If forestry is a solution to climate change, we need to provide evidence that a particular tree in a particular soil will absorb a certain quantity of carbon.”
  • 2 Desire for equitable processes – “People in communities are seen as victims when investors from outside the county are planting the trees, for example in Leitrim.”
  • 3 Wildlife impact – “Forestry needs to provide an ecosystem and amenity for the public. A monoculture of non-native trees is not as good as local trees, in fact low intensity beef production on that land could be better for wildlife.”
  • 4 Aesthetics – “Communities in these areas need to be profiting from forestry. Massive clear-felling also does not help in terms of aesthetics. In wind energy, community ownership helped the aesthetics of social acceptance.”

    • Managed forest is the most scalable sector to mitigate the impact of climate change, the conference heard.

    Forests alone have the potential to help mitigate the EU’s CO2 emissions up to 20% by 2050.

    However, one size won’t fit all, Minister of State Andrew Doyle said.

    “Some farmers have large tracts of land and could plant trees. Small farmers could use agro-forestry and continue to farm.

    "There are loads of options and we need to embrace them all,” Doyle told the conference, which was also addressed by Minister for the Environment Richard Bruton.

    “We have invested nearly €3bn in forestry since the 1980s, which, through ongoing sustainable forest management, can l contribute to delivering abatement of up 20 million tonnes of CO2 over the period 2021 to 2030.

    "This is a major component of Ireland’s climate change action,” Bruton said.

    “However, we need to increase participation rates in the forestry programme to maximise benefits for climate action, the environment and rural communities.”

    The forestry industry is scheduled to provide an additional 6,000 jobs in rural Ireland as the current forestry crop matures.

    Irish forests sequestered 3.6 million tonnes of CO2 on average per year – that’s equivalent to 60% of the CO2 emitted annually cars on Irish roads.

    The total forest carbon stock is now 312 million tonnes.

    The forest industries make a €2.3bn contribution to the economy and create 12,000 direct and indirect jobs.

    By 2035, turnover is forecast double from €800m to €1.6bn.

    Read more

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