Climate Change Advisory Council chairperson Marie Donnelly has warned that Irish forestry is in “a serious hole”, as it continues to miss its annual 8,000ha planting target. Apparently just 12pc of new forestry licences issued by the Department of Agriculture in 2021 were for tree planting.
The department issued 4,050 new forestry licenses in total last year, which was broken down into 2,877 for felling, 502 for afforestation, and the remaining for forest road developments.
Forest road approvals were also at the highest ever level for 264km, more than double the target set in the Climate Action Plan 2019.
A spokesperson said the Department is cognizant of the need to build on 2021 licence output and further increase the number of afforestation licences. “This will be a focus in our 2022 licensing plan, which we will publish shortly.”
“Improvements to the efficiency and effectiveness of the licensing process are also being dealt with under Project Woodland, and of particular interest is the Legal and Regulatory Review of forestry licencing, a report on which is due in February, 2022.”
“We are also rolling out a pilot for pre-application discussions in order to help improve the quality of afforestation applications.”
Ms Donnelly stressed to the Oireachtas Environment and Climate Action Committee that our afforestation rate needs immediate attention in order to get the policies right to reverse the situation.
LSL News.