DEAR SIR:

I am writing in relation to the interview with Minister Eamon Ryan in the Irish Farmers Journal dated 9 July 2022.

Considering there is strong emphasis on trying to counteract negativity around forestry at the moment, it is disappointing the minister could only reference legacy issues dating back to forestry practices of the last century, and not embrace the value, opportunities and potential of the forestry sector. This was surely a moment to point to the positives from forestry? Example: “Afforestation is the single largest land-based climate change mitigation measure available to Ireland” – as stated in the Climate Action Plan.

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  • Afforestation policy has been a great success, 690,000ha planted in 100 years.
  • Irish forests each year sequester 5m tonnes of carbon dioxide from our atmosphere – it cleans the air we breathe.
  • Let’s plant the 20,000ha per annum needed to achieve climate change mitigation requirements.
  • Forestry had the potential to counteract emissions from our dairy expansion, had we achieved our tree planting targets, so we must increase afforestation levels.
  • Ireland has a great opportunity to expand on our modest 11% cover, and add to the 12,000 industry jobs in the process.
  • How valuable this important sector is and that after €3bn of previous State investment, forestry now contributes €2.3bn of GDP to our economy.
  • Valuable timber supply will increase from 4.2m cubic metres in 2021, to 7.1m by 2035.
  • There are limitless opportunities to replace steel and concrete in high-rise buildings with cross-laminated timber in the future.
  • The forestry sector is a major indigenous rural economic driver and we must reinvigorate it.

    • Somewhat strange that when speaking on forestry, Minister Ryan could not point to any of these facts and could only pull from the negative. Perhaps the facts above simply don’t fit the agenda.