Forestry must be central to the Carbon Farming Framework, Donal Whelan, technical director of the Irish Timber Growers Association (ITGA) has said. “The association welcomes the establishment of the Carbon Farming Working Group to oversee the development of the framework, but incredibly, there is no forestry representation on this group, despite afforestation being acknowledged in the Climate Action Plan 2024 as one of the largest land-based, long-term climate change mitigation measures available to Ireland,” he said.