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The decline in the annual acreage going into forestry is slipping ever further below the Government’s original target of 8,000ha (20,000 acres).
A few weeks ago, I mentioned that part of farmers’ reluctance to plant was the presence of a legal obligation to replant after clear felling a forest. I also mentioned that it was stated in the Fine Gael election manifesto that this obligation would be abolished.
A senior Fine Gael figure contacted me to say that this statement was incorrect – I have checked the last three Fine Gael manifestos and I have found no mention of the replanting obligation so I must apologise for my mistake and for any embarrassment it may have caused.
I should add that the Fine Gael figure did not request a correction or an acknowledgment of the error but, nevertheless, a correction is due.
However, in going back through various forestry papers, this obligation to replant has been a running sore. As far back as 2008 when Mary Wallace was minister of state with responsibility for forestry, she commissioned a report on the sector. The Malone report, as it came to be called, was compiled by John Malone, who had been a highly respected secretary general of the Department of Agriculture.
It found after a large survey that the two key concerns preventing a greater rate of planting were worries about the future security of the premium payments and equally the obligation to replant without any assistance or premium payment after the first crop of trees has been harvested.
This permanent freezing of land going into forestry was again highlighted in a special report on the availability of land for forestry carried out by COFORD, the forestry research body, and published by the Department of Agriculture in 2018.
The whole issue of impediments to the development of the Irish forestry sector has significant economic impact on the wood processing and exporting sectors.
Greenhouse gas
In recent times, it has become important in the whole carbon sequestration area and its influence in calculating greenhouse gas emissions and the national bill for failing to meet our agreed targets.
National policymakers need to reassess what is the appropriate way to reach our forestry targets. There is no need to reinvent the wheel.
The analytical work that would justify a policy rethink has been done. The justification for digging in on the issue is unclear.
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