Ireland is seriously behind its own targets on afforestation, according to an industry body.
SEEFA - the Social, Economic, Environmental Forestry Association of Ireland - is warning of up to 12,000 job losses and the environmental impact of a sector in crisis.
All this week the private forestry group will stage a series of social media protests targeting local Government TD’s in an effort to highlight the ongoing crisis in the forestry sector. SEEFA is an alliance of private industry professionals who are lobbying for the Government to fulfil its obligations to maintain employment for more than 12,000 people in the sector which has been devastated by a backlog in the granting of afforestation and felling licenses. SEEFA is seeking direct intervention from the Department of the Taoiseach, as they say all other options have failed.
Jackie Cahill, TD and Chair of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine said the targets in the programme for Government on afforestation had been 'seriously missed':
"We are 15,000 behind target on afforestation in the last five years and if those trees had to be planted in their lifetime they would have sequestered 5.4 million tonnes of carbon. We have really missed an opportunity to benefit the rural economy and in our fight against climate change. Our failure to issue licenses and our failure to plant trees for afforestation is haunting us and will continue to haunt us in the years ahead because we can’t reclaim that lost time.”
Social Impact
With over 1,000 afforestation applications and thousands of felling and road licence applications still awaiting a decision, SEEFA says there is a severe social, economic and environmental impact of this crisis. Forest owners cannot plant their land, manage their forests or sell their timber. For many owners, this is their pension or the manner to pay for education for their children.
Teige Ryan, None So Hardy Forestry said “If the industry cannot get the required amount of licences, nurseries cannot sell their stock, foresters cannot plant or maintain forests, and harvesting companies cannot supply timber to the sawmills. The entire supply chain from seed to sawdust is affected. Nurseries are currently exporting seedlings to survive as sawmills are importing logs and timber, instead of felling Irish timber to serve the market.”
Economic Impact
In order to maintain supply of sawn wood, Irish sawmills are having to source timber from other countries which has a major negative economic impact. SEEFA maintain this is having a direct impact on home construction and is adding unnecessary thousands to mortgages for people building homes.
On the economic impact, Marina Conway, Western Forestry Co-Op said, “Previous governments have invested over €3 billion in this industry over thirty 35 years and over 20,000 farmers have committed their land to forest, these forests are now maturing, and private timber is ready to harvest. But instead, sawmills are having to import timber to meet demands of other sectors – particularly construction. Local timber needs to get to the market to maintain the forest supply chain, maintain rural jobs, keep local sawmills functioning and protect the economic benefits to rural communities.”
Environmental Impact
Ireland is currently at its lowest ever rate of tree planting, while a massive carbon footprint has also been created through importing timber.
Paddy Bruton, Forestry Services Limited and Euroforest Ireland said “Afforestation is clearly the largest opportunity in the land use sector to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Government afforestation targets are not being reached and in 2020 only 2,300 hectares were planted of an 8,000 hectare target. In the last 5 years, afforestation targets have been missed by over 15,000 hectares in total or the equivalent of 40 million trees. Had this area been afforested, it had the potential to remove 5.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over the lifetime of those forests.”
Imelda Connolly, Greenbelt, added “The department also urgently needs to introduce a viable Ash dieback scheme, so landowners can remove the dead and dying Ash trees and replant these areas with new forests. We believe that a sustainable forestry sector that can achieve commercial, climate and biodiversity goals is ready to flourish and deliver for rural Ireland but in order to achieve it we need to see a reduction in the volume of imported timber, and improvements to the current licensing system which are holding back the potential of the industry.”
