Commercial forestry planting has slumped 90 per cent to 2,000 hectares a year over the past three decades, an industry figure warned on Tuesday.
Forest Industries Ireland (FII), affiliated to business group Ibec, said growth had slowed dramatically in recent years, spelling trouble for climate targets.
The group argued that what had been a large-scale industry was turning into a niche activity.
Mark McAuley, FII’s director, said the Republic was planting more than 20,000 hectares of new forest a year during the 1990s, when the industry focused on conifer trees that produce commercial timber.
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“Today, we are only planting around 2,000 hectares per annum because of ever-increasing restrictions on forestry and the dilution of the commercial forestry model,” he argued.
Mr McAuley explained that the restrictions, meant to comply with EU rules, excluded too much land, while the Republic no longer prioritised conifers.
“We need to get back to what works in Irish forestry and that is a firm focus on providing an attractive financial option for farmers and concentrating on conifer-based commercial forestry,” Mr McAuley said.
He explained that all forests planted today included different types of trees and “biodiversity areas”, but he maintained that policy also had to ensure a return to landowners, or they would not plant forests in the first place.
Mr McAuley stressed that FII backed all types of forestry, but he dubbed it “naive” to think that the Republic could create an industry of the size needed based purely on native woodlands.
“We need more forestry to diversify our agricultural land use and help fight climate change,” he said.
