Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots has announced plans to plant 18m trees in NI by 2030 creating 9,000ha of new woodland.
The programme of afforestation under the heading “Forests for our Future” will be led by DAERA Forest Service and is in line with a recommendation made by the UK Committee on Climate Change in 2019. It suggested that NI needed to plant 900ha per year as its contribution to wider UK 2030 carbon emission targets. In the last few years, NI has only planted 200ha per year.
Making a statement in the Stormont Assembly chamber this week, minister Poots said that he wanted to work with the rural community to encourage further tree planting on privately owned land. In particular, he would like to see farmers planting trees around waterways, to help minimise nutrient run-off into lakes and rivers.
We can develop win-wins with the farming community, whereby they get appropriate support and the public get a reduced carbon footprint
“This is an area where we can develop win-wins with the farming community, whereby they get appropriate support and the public get a reduced carbon footprint, better and cleaner waters, and better air quality,” he said.
However, it is unlikely that this alone would come close to meeting the overall target. In addition, land is expensive to buy, so the minister plans to establish an afforestation forum to assess what public land is available for planting.
“I will oversee this work personally, and the forum will report to me regularly,” he told MLAs.
Forest Service is the largest public landowner in NI, with around 75,000ha, of which around 62,000ha is in trees. NI Water is next, with around 8,600ha.
However, not all this land is suitable for planting, particularly peat-based soils that may be able to sequester more carbon if managed by grazing livestock.
“We need to plant trees in the appropriate soils,” acknowledged the minister.
Land is expensive to buy, so the minister plans to establish an afforestation forum to assess what public land is available for planting
Overall, just 8% of the land area in NI is in woodland, compared to 10% in England, 15% in Wales, 19% in Scotland, 11% in the Republic of Ireland and 43% across the EU. But unlike Britain and much of continental Europe, NI has an extensive network of hedgrerows (approximately 100,000km) which often gets overlooked in the headline figures.
DAERA Forest Service has a target to increase the forest area in NI to 12% by 2054, mainly through private planting. That equates to an additional 56,000 ha by 2054, or roughly 1,600ha per year.
NI total land area: 1.35m ha.NI farmland: 1.03m ha.Total area of woodland: 113,000ha.The NI woodland area:
DAERA Forest Service: 62,000ha (56,000ha conifers; 7,000ha broadleaf).Private woodland: 51,000ha (11,000ha conifers; 40,000ha broadleaf). Read more
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Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots has announced plans to plant 18m trees in NI by 2030 creating 9,000ha of new woodland.
The programme of afforestation under the heading “Forests for our Future” will be led by DAERA Forest Service and is in line with a recommendation made by the UK Committee on Climate Change in 2019. It suggested that NI needed to plant 900ha per year as its contribution to wider UK 2030 carbon emission targets. In the last few years, NI has only planted 200ha per year.
Making a statement in the Stormont Assembly chamber this week, minister Poots said that he wanted to work with the rural community to encourage further tree planting on privately owned land. In particular, he would like to see farmers planting trees around waterways, to help minimise nutrient run-off into lakes and rivers.
We can develop win-wins with the farming community, whereby they get appropriate support and the public get a reduced carbon footprint
“This is an area where we can develop win-wins with the farming community, whereby they get appropriate support and the public get a reduced carbon footprint, better and cleaner waters, and better air quality,” he said.
However, it is unlikely that this alone would come close to meeting the overall target. In addition, land is expensive to buy, so the minister plans to establish an afforestation forum to assess what public land is available for planting.
“I will oversee this work personally, and the forum will report to me regularly,” he told MLAs.
Forest Service is the largest public landowner in NI, with around 75,000ha, of which around 62,000ha is in trees. NI Water is next, with around 8,600ha.
However, not all this land is suitable for planting, particularly peat-based soils that may be able to sequester more carbon if managed by grazing livestock.
“We need to plant trees in the appropriate soils,” acknowledged the minister.
Land is expensive to buy, so the minister plans to establish an afforestation forum to assess what public land is available for planting
Overall, just 8% of the land area in NI is in woodland, compared to 10% in England, 15% in Wales, 19% in Scotland, 11% in the Republic of Ireland and 43% across the EU. But unlike Britain and much of continental Europe, NI has an extensive network of hedgrerows (approximately 100,000km) which often gets overlooked in the headline figures.
DAERA Forest Service has a target to increase the forest area in NI to 12% by 2054, mainly through private planting. That equates to an additional 56,000 ha by 2054, or roughly 1,600ha per year.
NI total land area: 1.35m ha.NI farmland: 1.03m ha.Total area of woodland: 113,000ha.The NI woodland area:
DAERA Forest Service: 62,000ha (56,000ha conifers; 7,000ha broadleaf).Private woodland: 51,000ha (11,000ha conifers; 40,000ha broadleaf). Read more
Moorland to be restored at Greenmount farm
Plan to cut UK ag emissions by two-thirds
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