The plan to address the backlog of forestry licences actively discriminates against farm forests and could signal the end of farmer planting, the IFA has warned.

Farm forestry chair Vincent Nally said: “Despite the rhetoric about the important role of forestry in our climate mitigation plan, and its prominence in the programme for government, particularly forests on farms, the reality is the forest licence plan reduces the rights of smaller forest owners.”

Nally said the plan was another example of “the indifference” shown by the Department to the plight of farmers trying to manage forests at farm scale.

“The costs and bureaucracy associated with getting a licence under the current system means that the vast majority of forests on farms are no longer viable.

NIAs

“Under the plan, smaller forests that cannot justify the cost of a Natura Impact Statement (NIS) are being forced to the end of a very long queue of licence applications,” Nally said.

The Department needed a rethink if it hoped to re-engage farmers in the forestry programme, he said, as the proposed plan completely failed to address planting or managing forests at a farm scale.

Approximately 2,500ha is expected to be planted in 2020, 70% below the afforestation target of 8,000ha/year set out in the climate mitigation plan.

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New forestry licence plan could ‘end farmer planting’

The Department's proposed forestry licence plan displays "indifference” to the plight of farmers trying to manage forests at farm scale, the IFA says.