The current Forestry Programme 2014-2020 will be replaced by a new Implementation Plan for the Forest Strategy 2023-2027. The new plan features a catchall vision that includes “supporting a sustainable and thriving economy and society and a healthy environment” as well as the creation of “diverse forests with multiple objectives and benefits supporting industry, employment, ecosystem services, educational and recreational amenities”.
The Department proposes to launch the various forestry schemes next January after further consultation with stakeholders. It will seek Government approval in September and will apply to the European Commission for state aid approval in October.
The plan proposes to:
Increase forest cover.Provide greater focus on delivering environmental, social and recreational benefits for new and existing forests.Mobilise existing timber resources to add further value to the resource within a growing bioeconomy.The Irish Farmers Journal has received an outline of the plan, which specifies eight interventions including forest creation, agroforestry, technological investment, sustainable forest management, climate resilient reforestation, skills development and forest reconstitution.
“These interventions, along with the plan’s objectives, while laudable, are vague and worryingly aspirational,” said Pat O’Sullivan, technical director of the Society of Irish Foresters (SIF).
“The plan forms the basis for the Forestry Programme 2023-2027, so it urgently needs to be more specific and quantified as it goes before Government in September.”
The Irish Farmers Journal asked the following experts to outline what they expect from the next forestry programme:
Dr Gerhardt Gallagher – private forestry consultant. A former senior inspector in the Forest Service, he is co-author of a number of forestry publications. Marina Conway – CEO Western Farmers Co-op, which promotes farm forestry. She formerly worked with the Emissions Trading Scheme in New Zealand.Henry Phillips – forestry consultant who has carried out forest and land use policy across eastern Europe and has produced policy papers on forestry in Ireland.Donal Whelan – technical director, Irish Timber Growers Association (ITGA) and principal of Commercial Forestry Services Ltd. He is a council member of COFORD. CAP
All four maintained that the plan needs to be aligned with CAP. “It is essential that the new forestry programme is compatible with CAP, so that forestry competes on an equal playing pitch with other supports,” said Marina Conway.
“An alignment with CAP will ensure that the programme measures can compete financially with agricultural schemes,” maintained Donal Whelan.
Conway said the aims of the Department’s plan are positive, but it lacks detail.
“There is a strong emphasis on environmental benefits of forestry, including agroforestry, but while these are welcome, they need to be matched by rewards that compensate for loss of revenue,” she said.
“Farmers must be paid for the ecosystem services that their forests provide, which includes carbon,” she added.
Carbon
Henry Phillips called for a carbon-based afforestation scheme supported by an online carbon trading platform which would guarantee a floor price for all entrants.
“Increases in carbon values over time will be shared between the landowner and the trading platform – the Government,” he said.
“This would include a dedicated element for wood fuel production over short-rotation coppice or fast-growing species with fuel potential. A realistic annual afforestation target would be 4,000ha at year one, building to 10,000ha in year five.”
He also proposed a more regional focus such as a “wood fuel and bioenergy programme concentrated in the midlands, where Bord na Móna has abandoned rural Ireland”.
He said this would include grant aid for new entrants and for those in the wood fuel business hoping to improve efficiency and or technology.
It is time to develop a forest carbon code or standard that will facilitate the sale of voluntary carbon offsets from private forests
“It would be linked with the Wood Fuel Quality Assurance (WFQA) scheme and carbon-based afforestation,” Phillips said. Dr Gallagher agreed that the plan needs to promote the carbon trading benefits of forestry.
“An annual carbon premium based on the yield converted to carbon of optimum species selection is required,” he said.
“This would be paid from the year of forest establishment by bringing forward the years of high current increment – and sequestration. Since the State immediately benefits, current carbon prices should be paid.”
Whelan said Ireland is well behind other countries in carbon trading.
“It is time to develop a forest carbon code or standard that will facilitate the sale of voluntary carbon offsets from private forests,” he said.
“This would allow forest owners to attract additional revenue from the corporate sector over and above the grants and premia available in the Forestry Programme itself.
“This would ensure that forestry is made a more financially attractive option for landowners, especially farmers. COFORD recently recommended that it is timely to explore the issues around the potential introduction of a voluntary carbon code in Ireland,” he added.
Grant and premium payments
Phillips maintained that the grant and premium schemes need to refocus attention on timber production and future income streams for farmers.
“Grants for afforestation need to be increased significantly to cater for increased costs over time and premiums to be increased to allow for inflation,” he said.
“Future grant rates need to be linked on an agreed unit cost model and updated every two years to provide confidence to forest companies and contractors.”
Dr Gallagher said that grants should reflect the planting costs and the change to forestry from agriculture.
“Also, prompt and adequate payments must be made for losses incurred, to enable restocking where these could be attributed to weaknesses in protection, such as ash disease and storm damage.”
Simplified schemes
Conway said the plan needs to engage with farmers who have lost confidence in forestry.
“The new programme needs to be integrated with CAP and also needs to be simplified to encourage, rather than discourage, farmers who once planted over 80% of all forest compared with 12% in 2020.”
All four agreed that a “business as usual” approach would no longer be sufficient and supported the establishment of an independent Forestry Development Agency (FDA).
“The major challenge facing the sector will be best served by the establishment of an FDA,” said Phillips. “Forestry is the only natural resource without such an entity.”
The long, winding and confusing road to 18% forest cover and net zero
The first of eight interventions in the Department of Agriculture’s forestry plan is an afforestation scheme with a “target of 8,000ha per annum broken down by 12 forest types.”
It states that a driver of this intervention is the “8,000ha afforestation target” in the 2021 Climate Action Plan.
There is no afforestation target in the 2021 Climate Action Plan, while the 2019 Climate Action Plan is critical of low afforestation rates which will result in Ireland not achieving “its 18% land cover target by 2046”.
An 18% target by 2046 would require an annual afforestation programme of 19,500ha. However, the 2019 plan confusingly departs from its 2046 target year later in the same document, when it proposes to increase annual afforestation to 8,000ha “in order to reach our forestry land-cover target of 18% by the second half of this century”.
An 8,000ha annual programme would achieve 18% forest cover by 2080 – 30 years after net zero. The Department’s current plan makes no reference to the proposal by COFORD – the Department’s advisory research body – to increase annual afforestation rates to 16,000ha.
Donal Whelan supports this target and calls for “a higher level of ambition in the plan’s afforestation programme to achieve carbon neutrality in land use by mid century, in accordance with the Paris goals”.
The current Forestry Programme 2014-2020 will be replaced by a new Implementation Plan for the Forest Strategy 2023-2027. The new plan features a catchall vision that includes “supporting a sustainable and thriving economy and society and a healthy environment” as well as the creation of “diverse forests with multiple objectives and benefits supporting industry, employment, ecosystem services, educational and recreational amenities”.
The Department proposes to launch the various forestry schemes next January after further consultation with stakeholders. It will seek Government approval in September and will apply to the European Commission for state aid approval in October.
The plan proposes to:
Increase forest cover.Provide greater focus on delivering environmental, social and recreational benefits for new and existing forests.Mobilise existing timber resources to add further value to the resource within a growing bioeconomy.The Irish Farmers Journal has received an outline of the plan, which specifies eight interventions including forest creation, agroforestry, technological investment, sustainable forest management, climate resilient reforestation, skills development and forest reconstitution.
“These interventions, along with the plan’s objectives, while laudable, are vague and worryingly aspirational,” said Pat O’Sullivan, technical director of the Society of Irish Foresters (SIF).
“The plan forms the basis for the Forestry Programme 2023-2027, so it urgently needs to be more specific and quantified as it goes before Government in September.”
The Irish Farmers Journal asked the following experts to outline what they expect from the next forestry programme:
Dr Gerhardt Gallagher – private forestry consultant. A former senior inspector in the Forest Service, he is co-author of a number of forestry publications. Marina Conway – CEO Western Farmers Co-op, which promotes farm forestry. She formerly worked with the Emissions Trading Scheme in New Zealand.Henry Phillips – forestry consultant who has carried out forest and land use policy across eastern Europe and has produced policy papers on forestry in Ireland.Donal Whelan – technical director, Irish Timber Growers Association (ITGA) and principal of Commercial Forestry Services Ltd. He is a council member of COFORD. CAP
All four maintained that the plan needs to be aligned with CAP. “It is essential that the new forestry programme is compatible with CAP, so that forestry competes on an equal playing pitch with other supports,” said Marina Conway.
“An alignment with CAP will ensure that the programme measures can compete financially with agricultural schemes,” maintained Donal Whelan.
Conway said the aims of the Department’s plan are positive, but it lacks detail.
“There is a strong emphasis on environmental benefits of forestry, including agroforestry, but while these are welcome, they need to be matched by rewards that compensate for loss of revenue,” she said.
“Farmers must be paid for the ecosystem services that their forests provide, which includes carbon,” she added.
Carbon
Henry Phillips called for a carbon-based afforestation scheme supported by an online carbon trading platform which would guarantee a floor price for all entrants.
“Increases in carbon values over time will be shared between the landowner and the trading platform – the Government,” he said.
“This would include a dedicated element for wood fuel production over short-rotation coppice or fast-growing species with fuel potential. A realistic annual afforestation target would be 4,000ha at year one, building to 10,000ha in year five.”
He also proposed a more regional focus such as a “wood fuel and bioenergy programme concentrated in the midlands, where Bord na Móna has abandoned rural Ireland”.
He said this would include grant aid for new entrants and for those in the wood fuel business hoping to improve efficiency and or technology.
It is time to develop a forest carbon code or standard that will facilitate the sale of voluntary carbon offsets from private forests
“It would be linked with the Wood Fuel Quality Assurance (WFQA) scheme and carbon-based afforestation,” Phillips said. Dr Gallagher agreed that the plan needs to promote the carbon trading benefits of forestry.
“An annual carbon premium based on the yield converted to carbon of optimum species selection is required,” he said.
“This would be paid from the year of forest establishment by bringing forward the years of high current increment – and sequestration. Since the State immediately benefits, current carbon prices should be paid.”
Whelan said Ireland is well behind other countries in carbon trading.
“It is time to develop a forest carbon code or standard that will facilitate the sale of voluntary carbon offsets from private forests,” he said.
“This would allow forest owners to attract additional revenue from the corporate sector over and above the grants and premia available in the Forestry Programme itself.
“This would ensure that forestry is made a more financially attractive option for landowners, especially farmers. COFORD recently recommended that it is timely to explore the issues around the potential introduction of a voluntary carbon code in Ireland,” he added.
Grant and premium payments
Phillips maintained that the grant and premium schemes need to refocus attention on timber production and future income streams for farmers.
“Grants for afforestation need to be increased significantly to cater for increased costs over time and premiums to be increased to allow for inflation,” he said.
“Future grant rates need to be linked on an agreed unit cost model and updated every two years to provide confidence to forest companies and contractors.”
Dr Gallagher said that grants should reflect the planting costs and the change to forestry from agriculture.
“Also, prompt and adequate payments must be made for losses incurred, to enable restocking where these could be attributed to weaknesses in protection, such as ash disease and storm damage.”
Simplified schemes
Conway said the plan needs to engage with farmers who have lost confidence in forestry.
“The new programme needs to be integrated with CAP and also needs to be simplified to encourage, rather than discourage, farmers who once planted over 80% of all forest compared with 12% in 2020.”
All four agreed that a “business as usual” approach would no longer be sufficient and supported the establishment of an independent Forestry Development Agency (FDA).
“The major challenge facing the sector will be best served by the establishment of an FDA,” said Phillips. “Forestry is the only natural resource without such an entity.”
The long, winding and confusing road to 18% forest cover and net zero
The first of eight interventions in the Department of Agriculture’s forestry plan is an afforestation scheme with a “target of 8,000ha per annum broken down by 12 forest types.”
It states that a driver of this intervention is the “8,000ha afforestation target” in the 2021 Climate Action Plan.
There is no afforestation target in the 2021 Climate Action Plan, while the 2019 Climate Action Plan is critical of low afforestation rates which will result in Ireland not achieving “its 18% land cover target by 2046”.
An 18% target by 2046 would require an annual afforestation programme of 19,500ha. However, the 2019 plan confusingly departs from its 2046 target year later in the same document, when it proposes to increase annual afforestation to 8,000ha “in order to reach our forestry land-cover target of 18% by the second half of this century”.
An 8,000ha annual programme would achieve 18% forest cover by 2080 – 30 years after net zero. The Department’s current plan makes no reference to the proposal by COFORD – the Department’s advisory research body – to increase annual afforestation rates to 16,000ha.
Donal Whelan supports this target and calls for “a higher level of ambition in the plan’s afforestation programme to achieve carbon neutrality in land use by mid century, in accordance with the Paris goals”.
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: