A forestry licensing plan for 2022, which sets a target to issue 5,200 planting licences for this year, has been launched by Minister of State for forestry Senator Pippa Hackett.

The licensing target, if achieved, will represent an increase of 30% on the number of planting licences issued in 2021.

Minister Hackett said that for 2022, her Department is “giving a much higher priority to issuing planting licences” as opposed to the “significant increases in the numbers of felling and roads licences issued” last year.

Confidence

Announcing the targets, Minister Hackett described how “improved licencing output has a role to play in building confidence among farmers and landowners, and in increasing demand for licences and planting rates”.

She said building this confidence with farmers is why she is attaching such importance to improving licensing output in 2022.

“However, we also need to address the broader issue of increasing the level of interest in planting among farmers and landowners.

“In 2021, for example, there were 502 afforestation licences issued. Those licences would have facilitated the planting of over 4,200ha, but only 2,000ha have been planted to date."

Senator Hackett highlighted that the “conversion rate from licencing to planting”, at about 64%, is low.

“This means that at present, a disproportionate amount of processing effort both by the Department and forestry companies is wasted. We need to change that.”

Private licenses

The Green Party minister said that she also intends to “increase the overall number of private licences issued in respect of felling, roads and planting” by almost 50% in 2022.

“We will also significantly increase the output on schemes like the Reconstitution and Underplanting Scheme (Ash Dieback) (RUS), Reconstitution of Woodland Scheme (Frost) and the Native Woodland Conservation Scheme.

“The targets are ambitious, but we feel they are achievable, especially in light of the good progress we made last year. Last year was a record year for licencing, in terms of felling volume and forest roads, and we intend to build on that,” she said.

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