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Forestry plantations are devastating Leitrim and the Forest Service is not meeting its strategic objectives, Gerry Loftus of the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) has said.
Loftus, the INHFA spokesperson on forestry, claimed the way forestry is going at present, with monoculture, Sitka spruce plantations and others, is contributing to the decimation of rural communities.
“It’s not providing employment in Leitrim,” he told a gathering of locals in Carrick-on-Shannon last Friday.
Loftus also said the Forest Service, which is under the remit of the Department of Agriculture, is not meeting its strategic objectives.
Quoting three of its objectives – to foster the efficient and sustainable development of forestry, to increase quality planting and to promote the planting of diverse species – he said the Forest Service is “failing on all of these strategic objectives”.
Green bogs and carbon
An acre of conifers will absorb four times less carbon than an acre of well-maintained peat land, Loftus claimed.
“So what we’ve been doing here is absolutely unbelievable. We’re planting trees to absorb carbon on ground that if it was left alone would work four times better.
“Peatland has higher sequestration value than timber, so why are we planting green bogs?”
Loftus was scathing of Ireland’s increasing dairy herd, saying that expanding dairy farmers should take responsibility for their carbon footprint and not result in counties such as Leitrim being planted with trees.
“Rather than looking at plantations to offset their emissions, we would suggest their holdings are complemented with agroforestry to achieve the offset [in emissions].
“We are all part of the problem; we must be part of the solution. People who are creating greenhouse gases must be made responsible.”
Demands
The INHFA has called for a moratorium on the planting of Sitka spruce and for the tax-free incentive scheme for investment in forestry to be abolished.
“Any carbon credits arising from carbon sequestration off our land, soil, grasslands, bogs or trees belongs to us, the farmers,” said Loftus. “Should the Government want these credits, they must be paid for.
“We want a proper planning process, and rights for the citizens of this country.
“We have a situation in Leitrim where homes are valueless. This is a matter of urgency.”
The association is also calling for clear-felling to be banned and replaced with continuous cover forestry practices and that in all forests there should be a 20m fire belt between plantation and private property.
“Leitrim is a national sacrifice zone for Sitka spruce, I would love if I made that up for myself, but it was used to me by a person in the European Commission.”
- Marian Harkin, MEP
“There’s not one view of forestry, even in Leitrim. Some people want to plant, others want to farm. There’s huge community concern about the way [Ireland is] planting.”
- Mairead McGuinness, MEP
“Ireland’s main plan [for climate mitigation] is trees – unfortunately we see there aren’t many trees being grown in the Golden Vale. Most of them are in the west of Ireland.”
- Michael Fitzmaurice, TD, Independent
“Under the EU Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive, the Department of Agriculture … must assess the likely significant effects of its plans and programmes on the environment, human health, flora, soil, water [etc] … do you think they’re doing that in Leitrim? No, they are not.”
- Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, MEP
“What forestry does, is it makes a permanent change of land use and doesn’t require any labour. So there’s no activity. Now activity creates opportunities. We need activity in our rural areas, forestry destroys that.”
- Martin Kenny, TD, Sinn Fein
“What’s happening across Leitrim is extremely wrong. They’re not planting the Golden Vale, they’re planting marginal land where people don’t have a voice. Farmers are being discriminated against.”
- Edwina Guckian, local activist
‘Using Leitrim to take up the State’s carbon emissions is not acceptable’
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