Forest Industries Ireland (FII) has called on the Government to reinvigorate new forest planting and promote more building with wood.

The national representative body for the forestry and timber sectors within Ibec has launched its manifesto - ‘Forestry for our future: Delivering on the potential of Irish forestry’ - for the upcoming general election.

Launching the manifesto, FII director Mark McAuley said that forestry activity is going in the wrong direction.

“It is government policy to rapidly increase Ireland’s forest cover, but the afforestation rate is only 2,000 hectares per annum,” he said.

“If the government is serious about large-scale tree planting, we need to take a fresh look at what our farmers are being incentivised to do and tip the balance more towards tree planting.”

Forestry programme

The budget saw a reduction in the forestry allocation from €110m down to €91m.

FII said this reflects the reduction in new forestry activity and fewer forestry premiums having to be paid out to farmers under the Forestry Programme.

“We also have a huge problem with too much land being ineligible for the Forestry Programme. There are blanket restrictions in place and these should be replaced with a more site-specific approach,” said McAuley.

“Forestry cannot compete for the best agricultural land, so we have to plant marginal lands.”

Construction

FII said that Ireland lags behind other countries in green construction due to a lack of green public procurement policies and appropriate building regulations.

To compare, the French government implemented a sustainability law that requires 50% timber in public buildings, with the Olympic village in Paris using 45% timber in its construction.

“12% of Ireland’s [greenhouse gas] emissions stem from construction and government capital expenditure on housing is €2.7bn this year,” added McAuley.

“For every 100,000 scheme houses built using timber frame rather than masonry, we reduce carbon emissions by over 600,000 tonnes. But we have to keep planting productive forests if we are to build timber homes into the future.”

Calls to action

Detailed below are the main points FII wants addressed.

Dramatically increase afforestation by changing agricultural incentives and improving the Forestry Programme.

The afforestation scheme is only achieving 2,000 hectares of annual planting. We need to reduce bureaucracy, improve accessibility, and speed up licensing. Currently, forestry can’t compete with other land uses and agriculture schemes - a rebalancing of incentives is needed.

Make more land available for forestry by reducing land restrictions and creating a proactive national land use strategy which promotes more forest cover.

Forestry should protect and enhance the environment, but we must move away from blanket environmental restrictions and adopt a more site-specific approach. Too much viable forestry land is ruled out. We can mobilise more land for forestry with an impactful national land use strategy.

Support the planting of conifers and productive commercial forests to ensure long-term timber supplies for Irish housing and construction.

Conifers and softwood are the economic engine of Irish forestry - without them the forestry model fails. Conifers provide our sawmills with the right type of wood to produce all our construction, pallet and packaging products.

Promote the use of Irish wood in construction through green public procurement and changes to the building regulations.

We can build houses faster and greener with wood, while drastically reducing our carbon emissions. Government should take the lead by insisting on green buildings.

Create a new, independent forestry development agency to promote and develop the forest sector.

The forest sector needs and new, energised agency to promote and support its development. Forests and timber are important parts of the national bio economy with huge potential.