New Forestry Programme 2023-2027 delayed in Ireland

Despite being announced to great fanfare last November, and with great expectation that it would be cleared for launch early in the New Year, the new Forestry Programme 2023 - 2027 still hasn’t been given the green light as of mid-May.

The government are awaiting EU approval and the sense of sheer frustration and disappointment is palpable within the industry. Coming on top of five years of afforestation levels tanking, felling licence delays, and constant anti-commercial forestry publicity in mainstream and social media, the industry could have done without a six-month delay in the official launch of the new programme.

The Forest Service did introduce an Interim programme in February for those with existing licences under the previous programme, but there was limited interest - possibly because of confusion over the rules of the Interim scheme and concern that the rates might be higher whenever the new programme is officially launched.

According to the Social Environmental Economic Forestry Association (SEEFA), no forestry licences are being approved and no new applications are even being accepted by the Department. This is set to continue until the new programme is in place.

It is no great surprise, then, that just 255 hectares have been afforested in Q1 based on official figures from the Department. The target for 2023 is 8,000, but it is looking extremely unlikely that even last year’s disastrous outturn of 2,273 ha can be achieved.

The numbers also show that there has been a 90% decline in the number of licences issued in Q1 in comparison with Q1 in 2022.

Government inaction

It is the view of the writer that the political will or commitment is not there at the highest level to seriously address the issues facing Irish forestry. If the tillage, beef or dairy sector had experienced a 200% drop in production levels over the last 10 years, a crisis would have been declared and an urgent set of measures introduced to correct the situation.

A political storm would have no doubt ensued, which would have seen the government parties forced to take action from the Taoiseach down, or risk major losses at the polls at the next General Election. Certainly, having the Green Party power sharing does not help commercial forestry, and the fact that the Junior Minister with responsibility for Forestry is also from the Green Party adds to the problem.

And yet, it has to be said that the Government at the highest level have shown a marked reluctance (even cowardice) to come out and publicly support the commercial forestry industry which employs 10,000 people directly and indirectly. The risk of being slated on Twitter and other social media platforms by those from an environmental and anti-commercial forestry background appears to have silenced our political leaders.

Even the official name of the Department (the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine) does not include Forestry, which demonstrates albeit symbolically the lack of importance with which our industry is regarded. In addition, the name of the forestry division within the Department (the Forest Service) has also been eliminated so that officially there no longer is a Forest Service, and all correspondence and communications on forestry now show DAFM only.

Jim MacKinnon is his highly lauded report on Irish Forestry published in 2019 also noted that forestry did not appear in the title of the Department, and that a Minister for State does not have the influence or leverage of more senior Ministers. In Scotland, which has experienced a spectacular surge in afforestation levels in the past five years, a senior Minister has responsibility for forestry.

The contrast with the UK and especially England is depressing. Trudy Harrison’s statement in December 2022 at the Confor Policy Conference that she wanted more timber for domestic construction, and therefore more conifers were needed was extremely positive and uplifting to say the least. She then doubled down on this position by stating that she had no issue with conifer woodlands and enjoyed walking through conifer woods just as much as broadleaf woods.

She followed this by backing and pledging support to the Timber Sector Deal in March 2023 where once again she made a big commitment to productive forestry.

Irish foresters and the industry in general would be shocked to their core if Pippa Hackett, the Junior Minister with responsibility for Forestry, issued a similar statement regarding coniferous forestry. In fact, in 40 odd tweets about trees and forestry since January 2023, the majority have dealt with agroforestry, native tree planting, and a couple on CCF.

None referred to commercial coniferous forestry or the fantastic processing and nursery industry that has been built up in Ireland over the last 50 years. None referred to the 10,000 jobs; the majority of which have been created by commercial forestry enterprise in the same period. www.kestrelforestry.ie