The Social, Economic Environmental Forestry Association of Ireland (SEEFA) has claimed that less that 1,500ha of new forestry will be planted this year.
The association of private foresters made the comments as new data shows that 12 additional afforestation licences were granted by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) in the third week of January.
According to the department’s forestry dashboard, 28 afforestation licences have been issued up to January 19, which relates to 221ha of new planting.
17 afforestation applications have been made to DAFM, while the data shows that 18ha of forestry has been planted to date this year.
The department noted that the figures for afforestation planted in 2024 reflect afforestation that has been paid at first grant stage this year to date only.
Last month, DAFM published its forestry licencing plan for 2024 which estimated that the department will issue 4,200 new licences this year.
It confirmed that the department has capacity to issue sufficient licences to meet its annual target of 8,000ha of new forests.
DAFM have estimated that there will be 1,000 afforestation applications in 2024, which would be the required number of afforestation applications to be received in order to meet targets.
Forestry
The latest figures also show that 76 private felling licences and 50 Coillte felling licences were issued up to January 19.
31 felling applications were made to the department on behalf of private forestry owners, while there were none from Coillte.
25 applications were made for forestry roads, the department granted 45 such licences in the first three weeks of 2024.
In total, DAFM has issued 199 forestry licences and received applications for 73 licences.
According to the dashboard, no licences with input from ecologists have been issued yet in January. The dashboard outlines that the targeted amount of such licences to be issued each month (excluding Coillte felling licences) is around 220.