Holly Cairns
Question:120. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the steps he is taking to address the backlog of forestry licences. [7038/22]
View answerThursday, 10 February 2022
Questions (120)
Written answers
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) issued 4,050 forestry licences last year, which is an increase of 56% on the number issued in 2020.
In terms of the categories of each type of licence issued, these approvals included 2,877 felling licences. Critically, the availability of this volume of timber, at nearly 8.5 million cubic metres, stabilised supply to the processing sector in 2021. This is the highest volume ever issued in a single year.
In addition, 264 kilometres of forest roads were licensed, more than double the target in the Climate Action Plan 2019. This is also the highest ever volume of forest roads issued in a single year. Forest roads enable the haulage of timber from harvested forests.
Last week, a Forestry Licensing Plan for 2022 was published which contains a target of 5,250 licences to be issued, which is a year-on-year increase of 30%.
- A higher priority will be given to afforestation licences for 2022 with a 107% increase in output up to 1,040.
- There will be a year-on-year increase of 48% of private felling, roads and afforestation files. Coillte felling licences will maintain the levels they achieved in 2021.
- The Department will also refocus on the delivery of most approvals from several schemes including Reconstitution and Underplanting Scheme (RUS) (Ash Dieback), the Reconstitution of Woodland Scheme (Frost), the Native Woodland Scheme and a proposed small-scale planting scheme for up to one hectare of native species.
This year the focus will be on increasing the number of afforestation licences issued. We will continue to keep resources under review and will implement all practical process improvements which result from the review and analysis in train under Project Woodland.
Improving afforestation licensing is a key priority for 2022. A greater concern for all of us must be that the number of afforestation applications has continued its downward decline in 2021.
Reversing this trend, I believe requires a concerted effort now, from everybody with an interest in seeing more trees planted in Ireland. 2022 will be a big year for farmers, with the arrival of a new CAP and new Forestry Programme and it is important that the benefits of afforestation are well understood by them. The Department is, as always, ready to play its part and assist in improving communications. We understand of course that licensing forestry activities has a role to play hence the importance attached to improved licensing output in 2022. However, positive messaging around the benefit of afforestation is the responsibility of all, particularly those with a direct line of communication to farmers and landowners.
As Minister in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, we remain fully committed to delivering a licensing system which will meets the needs of the sector and of society and recent licensing trends demonstrate that we are making progress towards achieving this.