The Agriculture Appeals Office which was established in 2002 in accordance with the Agriculture Appeals Act 2001, was assigned responsibility for implementing a new statutory appeals service for appeals against Department decisions on forestry licences in 2018. The Agriculture Appeals Office and the Forestry Appeals Committee (FAC) operate independently of my Department.
Since the FAC was established, the number of appeals has increased significantly year-on-year. In 2020, there were appeals against decisions on 582 licences submitted to the FAC compared to 311 licences appealed in 2019 and 150 licences appealed in 2018.
Prior to November 2020, there was one Committee hearing forestry appeals. With the introduction of new legislation in October 2020 which provides for sub-divisions of the FAC, an additional three divisions were set up and there are now four Committees hearing appeals each week. The FAC consists of internal and external members. All Agriculture Appeals Officers are members of the FAC. Additional resources were provided to the Agriculture Appeals Office in the 3rd quarter of 2020 to deal with the backlog of appeals and additional external members were appointed to serve as Deputy Chairpersons and ordinary members.
Prior to the introduction of the new legislation in October 2020, the FAC was hearing an average of 24 licence appeals per month. Since the sub-divisions of the FAC were established, the FAC is now hearing appeals against an average of 60 licences per month representing an increase of 150%. The FAC in consultation with the Agriculture Appeals Office is currently reviewing ways in which greater efficiency can be achieved across the four divisions of the FAC.
The number of appealed licences awaiting decision by the FAC are as follows;
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Felling
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189
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Afforestation
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90
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Forest Roads
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74
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The felling licences concerned will include those for clear fell operations only, thinning only and a mixture of thinning and clear fell on the one licence.
