Forestry Licensing Plan 2024 published

Minister of State for Land Use and Biodiversity at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Senator Pippa Hackett, has published her Department’s Forestry Licencing plan for 2024.

The Plan estimates that the Department will issue 4,200 new licences in 2024, and confirms that the Department has capacity to issue sufficient licences to meet its annual target of 8,000 hectares of new forests.

Referring to the Plan, Minister Hackett said that the focus for her Department, and for the forestry sector more widely, needs to remain resolutely on maximising afforestation rates and managing existing forests in order to ensure that the targets outlined in Ireland’s Climate Action Plan are achieved.

Minister Hackett said, “Since the new Forestry Programme opened in September, we have approved 73 afforestation licences, totalling 593 hectares. In addition, we have processed 92 applications already approved under the Forestry Programme 2014-2020 that hadn’t commenced planting and have now opted in to the new Forestry Programme 2023-2027.

“Those licences cover an area of 808 hectares, meaning a total land area of 1,401 hectares has been made available for planting at the higher grant and premium rates since the opening of the new Programme.”

Farmers account for 84% of applicants to the new afforestation scheme. To date, 46% of new applicants are choosing to plant spruce, with a 20% mix of broadleaf trees (Forest Type 12), and 43% are choosing to plant native forests (Forest Type 1).

Since the small planting Native Tree Area scheme went live in October, the Department has issued 13 approvals. On average, the Department is issuing these approvals less than 3 weeks after receiving applications.

Minister Hackett said: “This is the best-funded, most environmentally friendly forestry programme in the history of the State, and I would encourage all farmers and landowners to look at the range of forestry options available to them.”

Landowners and farmers must obtain a licence from the Department before planting or felling a forest. This is to ensure that all forestry activity protects the environment, follows sustainable forest management practices and abides by the law.