For decades, forest owners have been stating that forests and their products can help to solve climate change.

Now, the message that trees are the number one way in which carbon can be removed from the atmosphere, stored in vegetation and forest products over the long term is being bombarded at a global level.

Nearly half of the forests in Ireland are privately owned, predominantly by farmers, but farmers’ engagement in the sector has been dwindling in recent years.

These family forests, or farm forests as we call them, are a large untapped resource for combating climate change.

It is estimated that since 1990 alone, over 31,000kt CO2 have been sequestered, which was valued at €180m in 2015 using a carbon price of €5.80/t.

In recent times, there has been a lot of talk on the IFA farm forestry committee on how farmers can get a payment for the carbon in their forests.

The carbon market offers new opportunities and challenges

It wants to better understand the potential of the market and to generate additional income from the forest, as well as beginning to understand the different options and systems that are operational globally, and the complexities with each. It is a daunting process.

The carbon market offers new opportunities and challenges. Presently, there is a prohibitive expense of bringing a forest to the carbon market– a process that involves taking an inventory of the trees, assessing the forest’s carbon content, estimating future growth and submitting to several levels of auditing.

If family forests can get past the barriers, the carbon market could be profitable, particularly as carbon prices are forecast to quadruple by 2030 in Europe

However, technological advances are reducing the costs associated with valuing carbon. Innovation will be extremely important in the carbon market to bring smaller forests into them.

If family forests can get past the barriers, the carbon market could be profitable, particularly as carbon prices are forecast to quadruple by 2030 in Europe.

There are ways to overcome these barriers, with new systems being designed continually. Only recently the New Zealand government, which has been at the forefront of carbon payment for private forest owners, has announced a new carbon payment system that would pay private forest owners a regular payment based on future earnings.

By taking a long-term view of the amount of carbon in a productive forest, forest owners will be able to trade more carbon at lower risk, and not have to worry about repaying when they harvest.

It is essential that the right incentives are put in place over the long term if we are to deliver our afforestation programme, as well as our commitments in taking action on climate change and supporting the transition to a low-emissions future.