Computer inventory raises value of Irish forest lands

The State has discovered an additional 36,000 hectares of forestry, making the national forestry inventory worth at least £130 million and possibly as much as £400 million more than was previously thought.

The discovery of the additional land was revealed yesterday as the Minister of State at the Department of Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Hugh Byrne, unveiled the Forestry Service's new satellite-based Forest Inventory and Planning System (FIPS).

The system combines satellite images, aerial photography and ordinance survey data to compile its results. It is, according to the Minister, one of the largest computer-based forest inventory systems in Europe.

The new system will give its users instant access to the location and status of every forest in the State, greatly assisting in the administration of the forestry grant and premium schemes.

Even before the National Forest Inventory was launched yesterday however, FIPS had detected 606,000 hectares of forestry in the State, some 36,000 hectares more than the Government Forest Strategy, published in 1996, had estimated.

FIPS also accurately assessed the percentage of the National Forest Estate which may be classified as broadleaf, at 21 per cent. The figure surprised forestry professionals who had estimated the broadleaf portion to be in the region of 16 per cent and it underlines recent successes in relation to species diversification.

FIPS represents the first national forestry inventory and was developed at the Coillte offices at Newtownmountkennedy, Co Wicklow, by an international consortium involving Coillte, the National Remote Sensing Centre (UK) and the Joint Research Centre Q Space Applications Institute (Italy).

It will be managed by the Forest Service and based in Co Wexford.

According to Mr Sean Conway, spokesman for Coillte, the value of the additional forestry identified by FIPS is difficult to quantify, but he does acknowledge that at least 90 per cent of it would be in public ownership.

"It is a crop, so you are talking about how good it is, what type of tree and even how old it is," he explained.

When pressed however, Mr Conway said that five-year-old sitka spruce, a popular crop, could be estimated to be worth in the region of £1,500 an acre "land and all".

At these prices 36,000 hectares (at 2.4 acres to the hectare) of five-year-old sitka spruce would make £129.6 million.

Mr Conway points out that not all the additional forestry is sitka spruce but he estimates that a harvest valuation of 30-year-old sitka spruce would be in the region of £5,000 per acre. This works out at £432 million.

"The debate on the value of forestry is one always very heavily influenced by many factors, but I see the real value of the exercise in demonstrating how the FIPS system is a fantastic piece of technology" said Mr Conway.

"It also shows that forestry is now a planned and serious business," said Mr Denis Maher, spokesman for the Forestry Service. He added: "Ninety-one per cent of all new entrants in recent years have been farmers who have come to realise that bad land can be quite suitable for forestry."