Last year, the Government announced an annual 8,000ha afforestation programme until 2040. The programme for government committed “to deliver an ambitious afforestation plan reviewing grant and premium rates across all categories in this area, with a particular focus on an increased farmer rate of support”.

The programme also promised to “implement the Mackinnon Report” which was delivered to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine last December.

The author – Jim Mackinnon – addressed Ireland’s dramatic fall in afforestation and drew comparison with a similar review he carried out in Scotland.

He outlined areas of commonality with Scotland where his report was adopted by the Scottish parliament. It transformed afforestation throughout Scotland as planting increased from 4,600ha in 2016 to 11,200ha last year.

Decade of decline in afforestation (2011 to 2020)

The optimism created during the launch of the forestry strategic plan “Growing for the Future” in 1996 has long since dissipated. Average annual afforestation has declined from 16,871ha (1991-2000) to 5,506ha in the current decade (Table 1), with afforestation this year likely to fall to 2,500ha, the lowest since 1947.

There are a number of reasons for this decline, including:

  • A complex legal and licensing process.
  • Restrictions on land availability.
  • Ash dieback.
  • Reduction in the premium period.
  • Replanting obligation.
  • Legal situation

    The provisions of the Forestry Act 2014, have had wide-ranging implications on forestry. The act has many positives including tougher penalties for illegal tree felling and it allows felling licences over a period of 10 years.

    Minister Doyle, who inherited the act, claimed it would provide for “a more flexible system for regulating forestry activities, in general, and the felling of trees in particular”.

    This would have required an efficient process in approving licences by Forest Service inspectors in DAFM working closely with the sector – as recommended by Mackinnon – but this has not materialised.

    Forest development has never been more restrictive in afforestation, roading and felling and never more time-consuming with delays of over two years to achieve licences not uncommon.

    The act has not delivered on felling licence approval despite its objective that every application would be determined within four months.

    Licence applications are subject to appropriate assessment (AA) which has benefits in ensuring quality afforestation programmes from an environmental perspective.

    AA is an evaluation of the potential adverse effects of projects such as planting, felling and roading on Natura sites – Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Special Protection Areas (SPAs). When the Department issues licences for these, they are subject to appeals.

    Widespread appeals can either stop development or delay final licence approvals as they need to be adjudicated by the Forestry Appeals Committee (FAC) – set up by the Forestry Act.

    The FAC is under-resourced and has a large backlog of appeals on its books which could take up to three years to clear. Small wonder that private landowners – mainly farmers – wishing to plant, lose interest when faced with this cumbersome process.

    Forestry land restrictions

    There has been a major shift in the location of new forests to western counties especially from Munster, where planting has dropped alarmingly. This is due to restrictions on planting marginal land regarded as suitable for forestry by farmers and foresters.

    Some of this land has been correctly removed for environmental reasons but foresters and farmers are finding it increasingly difficult to gain licences to plant 280,000ha of excellent marginal agriculture land suitable for forestry including “180,000ha of productive unenclosed land”, according to the Department-commissioned report Land Availability for Afforestation.

    The virtual banning of unenclosed land by the Department has coincided with the dramatic decline in afforestation in counties Cork, Kerry, Limerick and parts of Tipperary and the resultant concentration of planting in counties such as Leitrim, Roscommon, Sligo and Cavan where unenclosed land is not a major issue.

    Replanting obligation

    The IFA and Teagasc have identified the legal requirement to replant as a barrier to afforestation, especially among farmers. This requirement was also acknowledged as inhibiting afforestation in the Department’s Forest Land Availability Implementation Group Report.

    Multipurpose forestry has a wide range of economic, environmental and social benefits

    The report maintained the replanting issue could be solved without risking deforestation. The report stated that its relaxation “would reassure people and may positively impact on forested land values”.

    Ash dieback

    In the 10 years prior to 2012 when ash dieback was detected, 25,000ha of broadleaves – mainly native – were planted. Farmers who suffered serious economic loss as a result of this disease have not been adequately compensated.

    While broadleaf planting is increasing again, the long-term loss of revenue incurred by farmers with ash, has resulted in their reassessment of their broadleaf planting strategy.

    Reduction in premium period

    The reduction of the premium period from 20 to 15 years was reluctantly accepted by the sector for fast-growing conifers but it is inadequate for broadleaves with rotation lengths of 60 to 120 years. The recent destruction of 400,000 oak transplants by None-so-Hardy Nurseries could have been avoided if the Department had continued its longer-term premium period for oak and other long-rotation broadleaves.

    New decade, new objectives

    Multipurpose forestry has a wide range of economic, environmental and social benefits. Ireland is well placed to maximise these as it is the only country in Europe that can increase its forest resource by over 60% without negatively affecting food security.

    The achievement of the Government’s 8,000ha afforestation programme will require a transfer of 1.1% of all land or 2.2% of mainly marginal agricultural land to forestry each decade between now and mid century.

    Climate change

    The Government’s afforestation programme is largely based on the contribution of forests to climate change mitigation. The 2017 Irish Forest Inventory estimates the total carbon stock of Irish forests at 312 million tonnes (mt) comprising 56mt in trees, 9mt in deadwood and litter, while forest soil at 247mt is the dominant component.

    A well-balanced geographical afforestation programme would promote agriculture and forestry as complementary land uses in achieving sustainable climate change and rural development programmes.

    Forestry is a sustainable land use to assist agriculture in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and achieving climate change targets.

    The obvious advantages are in the ability of forests to sequester carbon dioxide but the climate change arguments in favour of forestry extend beyond the forest. These include decarbonising the economy in construction and renewable energy.

    In this regard, GHG emissions can be dramatically reduced if wood and wood-based products are used to displace or substitute fossil-based materials.

    Substitution is a major benefit of wood in the bioeconomy, especially in the use of engineered wood such as cross-laminated timber (CLT) in large-scale construction. For example, the HoHo 80m high building in CLT Norway spruce in Vienna will save 2,800 tonnes of CO2 compared to a more conventional building of the same size.

    While Ireland is not yet prepared to build in engineered wood, research in NUI Galway shows that Sitka spruce CLT is ideally suited for multi-storey construction.

    Homegrown softwoods are also suitable for timber-frame house buildings, which use a high percentage of sawn timber in wall, floor and roof construction alongside block and brick.

    “It is estimated the average three-bed, timber-framed house, stores roughly 19t of CO2, so if Ireland built 35,000 new homes annually, as some analysts suggest we need, 665,000t of carbon would be stored,” Des O’Toole, Coillte, maintains. “This is the equivalent of 370,000 modern cars or the total number of new car registrations over a three-year period.”

    This approach has been central to forest policy in Scotland which had a similar annual planting programme to Ireland but is now four times greater.

    Mairi Gougeon, Scotland’s Minister for Rural Affairs, a strong advocate of broadleaf planting, acknowledges the major role that coniferous production forests play in decarbonising the economy.

    “High-production plantation forests complement rather than threaten natural woodlands,” she said.

    “In most instances, they provide the only viable source of wood for construction.”

    Contrast this approach with the findings of the Oireachtas committee report on climate change where carbon sequestration is discussed but decarbonisation in construction and energy with wood biomass is not addressed.

    The connection between carbon sequestration in forests and carbon storage in wood products is missed and, as a result, the committee’s findings are one-dimensional.

    Land availability

    The Government’s afforestation programme will only be achieved if barriers to afforestation are addressed. This will require a reassessment of land availability. Both the IFA and Forest Industries Ireland (FII) have consistently called for a reversal of the 20% rule which has led to the virtual elimination of good-quality unenclosed forestry land.

    A Department report identified 180,000ha of land that is suitable for afforestation but is currently precluded due to this ruling.

    There is more limited scope in hen harrier conservation areas comprising six Special Protected Areas (SPAs) amounting to 167,000ha.

    The IFA accepts the need to conserve hen harrier habitats but maintains that a sustainably planned forestry and conservation programme are compatible on a proportion of this land. A realistic approach to afforestation in unenclosed land and in 10% to 15% of hen harrier-designated sites could free up over 200,000ha of land for the afforestation programme.

    Planting this land would ensure a return of afforestation to some Munster counties where the planting programme has collapsed. However, a modest planting programme in the better-quality farmland in southern and eastern counties, which are the greatest GHG emitters, has to be considered in CAP negotiations.

    The Government’s afforestation programme will only be achieved if barriers to afforestation are addressed

    For example, if just 4% of farms in the south and east were planted up until 2050, a further 100,000ha could be added to the forestry land bank. This would take the pressure off large-scale planting in Border, Midlands and Western (BMW) counties where the average farm size is 27ha and where even modest forest blocks of around 10ha have a major impact on farm holdings.

    Regardless of forest policy, gley soils in parts of Mayo, Roscommon, Leitrim, Sligo and Cavan are likely to prove attractive for forestry, which provides annual revenue up to €560/ha. This is higher than most suckler and virtually all sheep systems.

    However, there is broad agreement that a more evenly spread geographic forestry programme is environmentally and socially desirable. This approach would promote agriculture and forestry as complementary land uses in achieving sustainable climate change and rural development programmes.

    Increased planting on some marginal land, along with agroforestry, will allow farmers to achieve the Government’s 30% broadleaf planting programme. However, the damage caused by ash dieback, has resulted in a loss of confidence in broadleaf forestry while the 15-year premium period for long-rotation broadleaf crops needs to be extended by at least five years.

    Licences

    As outlined, a major stumbling block to afforestation is the long and frustrating wait for Department licence approval.

    In this regard, the Mackinnon Review proposed a customer charter for forestry “which sets out the service relevant stakeholders should expect and receive”.

    It is also time to assess the need for repeated licence applications for afforestation, roading, thinning and final harvest.

    A licence issued for afforestation should be regarded as licences to manage which would remove the need for repeated licence applications, especially for forest roads and thinning, which are regarded as good management practices.

    A licence at final harvest stage is acceptable as it has landscape, environmental and reforestation implications.

    Development agency

    Despite recent setbacks, Ireland has a vibrant forestry sector. Irish nurseries, foresters and forestry companies, landowners, contractors and timber processors combine to contribute to a sector, which includes 22,000 farmers with forests and 12,000 jobs in forests and downstream industries.

    However, the near collapse of the planting programme and licence shortfalls in felling and roading demonstrate that the current structure is inadequate. It is clear that the Department is not equipped to carry out all the functions that ensure a viable forestry programme.

    An independent forestry agency is now regarded as essential for the future of the forest industry.

    Forestry is the only natural resource sector in Ireland without the support of an independent agency.

    Examples of natural resource sectors that have benefited from development and promotional agencies include food (Bord Bia), sea fisheries (BIM), inland fisheries (IFI), marine research (Marine Institute) and renewable energy (SEI).

    Forestry would benefit from the support of an independent agency to maximise its economic, environmental and social benefits.

    Its first task would be to assess and deliver on the 22 recommendations by Mackinnon, none of which have been implemented after nine months.

    Decade of resilience in wood processing

    The performance of Irish timber processing mills has been extremely positive, especially in the years after the economic downturn in 2008 and the collapse of the construction market. All 11 timber processing mills – panelboard and sawmills – are still operating due to increased export markets, mainly to the UK, where 80% of their products now compete successfully against major timber-producing countries.

    All mills are confident that they can process the available timber coming on the market, which is important as log production in Irish forests is forecast to increase from 4.14 million m3 to 7.68 million m3 by 2035 (Table 2).

    This is due to increased production from private – mainly farmer-owned – forests. Wood processing is central to the viability of the forest industry and is a major reason why the total value of economic activity in the forest sector is estimated at €2.3bn (Table 3), according to 2012 Department data.

    More contemporary estimates and statistics are required as renewed international competition, Brexit and now COVID-19 are major challenges.

    However, the biggest obstacle has been the slowdown in granting felling and roading licences to Coillte and private forest owners. These are essential for sustainable wood mobilisation and supply to domestic and export timber markets.