Annual forestry licence approvals for 2024 were weak for afforestation and felling but strong for forest road construction. Organisations such as the Social, Economic and Environmental Forestry Association (SEEFA) welcomed increases in afforestation licences in late summer and autumn but criticised the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) for “lack of consistency” while the “overall weekly results remain disappointing”.

Afforestation licences

The welcome increase in afforestation licences from late July to the end of September demonstrated what can be achieved in delivering a viable planting programme. However the returns for the remainder of 2024 were extremely low and serve as a reminder that the current forestry programme needs a radical overhaul during the midterm review if afforestation can deliver targets outlined in Ireland’s Climate Action Plan.

Assessing the monthly DAFM dashboard afforestation data is an exasperating exercise. Afforestation averaged 301ha for the first four months, followed by an increase to 526ha in May – double the previous month – but fell again to 386ha in June. August (560ha) and September (586ha) returns were extremely positive but slippage was noticeable in October (443ha) while November (284ha) lapsed to a close historic low.

“Greater consistency from the Department is required,” said a spokesperson for SEEFA. “It remains unclear why isolated periods of higher performance cannot be maintained and why they must be followed by extended periods of limited progress,” he said. On a positive note, over 4,600ha of afforestation licences had been issued at the time of writing. Although only 1,500ha have been planted, licences will take time to translate into actual planting. “In addition to the 4,600ha, DAFM processed 1,614ha applications already approved under Forestry Programme 2014 – 2020 that hadn’t commenced planting and have now opted into the new Forestry Programme,” said a Department spokesperson.

Roading licences

Access to forests is vital in achieving a viable harvesting programme, so roading licences are essential if the high volume timber harvesting forecasts are to be realised. Roading licences were issued for 308km by the first week in December. This exceeds the 264km approved in 2022, which was the last year a viable roading programme was achieved.

Felling licences

Felling licences issued up to December reached 21,139ha, which is well down on last year (32,588ha), way below 2022 (46,027ha) and well down on 2021 (32,855ha), but up on 2020 (18,2451ha). DAFM has translated this into volumes licensed – based on clearfells and thinning – as follows for both Coillte and private forest owners:

Timber supply from private growers has increased but not to the extent that has been forecast. Private supply which by 2024 should be level with Coillte has fallen back since 2021 when it comprised 48% of all sales. In 2023 it had fallen back to 42% of total supply while Coillte removals have plateaued.(Table 1).

Some of the reasons advanced for the poor private performance in 2022 and 2023 have been insufficient licence approvals and a drop in demand from sawmills.

The fall in demand and resultant prices are definite factors but the felling licences issue is complex.

The relationship between area and volume from 2020 to December 2024 shows that over 38 million m3 have been licensed compared to removals of 20 million m3 (Table 1).

As the licence period is 10 years, licences issued since 2020 now have between five and 10 years before they lapse, which should see most of the 18 million m3 differential reaching the market.

While it is understandable that forest owners will wait for an increase in log prices before clearfelling, there is no reason for not carrying out a thinning as small to medium log prices are strong

Those wishing to sell may face impediments such as a shortage of contractors, while in some instances harvesting may be postponed or delayed because of environmental conditions or delays in receiving forest road licences.

Even allowing for these obstacles, the data in Table 1 suggests that there should be sufficient timber available in the short-term although there has been sizeable fall off in felling licences in 2024.

Election manifestos on ash dieback ‘need to be honoured’

Limerick and Tipperary Woodland Owners Ltd recently repeated its call for the suspension “of the flawed ash dieback scheme until a new Government is in place”.

The group’s chair Simon White has called on Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to honour their election manifesto promises.

“The two largest parties have pledged to improve the ash dieback scheme in their respective manifestos,” said White. “If returned to Government” Fianna Fáil promised to “introduce a programme for removal of trees with ash dieback” while Fine Gael’s manifesto stated: “We will secure sufficient funding to combat the impact of ash dieback on our forests.”

White pointed out a number of shortcomings in the scheme, including the ash clearance grant.

“DAFM has no evidence to explain why €2,000 is sufficient to clear a hectare of diseased trees despite repeated requests for this to be justified and numerous examples given of why this grant is insufficient”.

A DAFM circular (12 December) on ash clearance states: “Applications approved from today’s date will be approved until the 31/12/2027 to allow for the satisfactory completion of both the site clearance works and reconstitution. In addition, any extensions requested will be granted until 31/12/2027.”

In short