A total of 12 afforestation licences have been issued by the Department of Agriculture to date in 2023 for farmers or foresters to plant trees.
These 12 licences accounted for 170ha of trees for planting – thousands of hectares short of the 8,000ha annual planting target set by Government.
In the year to date, some 61 afforestation applications have been received, with just 12 issued.
As of the fourth week of August, just 30ha of trees were approved for planting. In July, 7ha of trees were approved.
Approval
In early August, the European Commission announced it had approved the afforestation measures as part of the €1.3bn Forestry Programme and it expected that licence applications to plant trees will increase on the back of this approval.
Prior to this approval, an interim afforestation scheme was put in place under de minimis rules, whereby farmers could apply to plant trees. However, there were stringent terms and conditions attached.
The Department’s forestry dashboard states that it has approved 288 afforestation licence applications under this scheme. However, the area covered is not disclosed on the dashboard.
Felling licences
The Department has approved 2,891ha of forestry for felling, with 23,823ha approved for felling in the year to date.
It has received 605 felling licences in the year to date from farmers and foresters and it has approved 1,078 - a reflection of the number of felling licences that were held up from being approved in recent months and years.
Some 750 felling licences have been received by the Department from Coillte. It has given the green light to 950 felling licences to date this year.
SHARING OPTIONS