Ireland has substantially less forestry than many European countries and the importance of Irish forestry is growing, especially when it comes to our environment. Forestry in Ireland has the chance of having an influence on the environment which is positive. Forestry can not only contribute towards reducing the overall greenhouse gases that we are emitting, Irish forestry is also making an impact as a renewable energy resource.
We have the land that can be put into forestry. Currently, 10% of Ireland’s land is under forest cover and that figure can rise significantly. The fact is that newly planted forests actually take in higher relative levels of carbon dioxide than do their fully mature counterparts. According to Dr Eugene Hendrick, Director of COFORD, during a recent conference entitled ‘The Greening of Irish Agriculture’, “Without their contribution being recognized in the world of targets and compliance, the argument for additional afforestation, from a purely climate change mitigation viewpoint, becomes more difficult.”
Our overall greenhouse emissions are actually much, much less than what is actually stored in our forests. Doctor Hendrick went on to say “Irish forests under the Kyoto regime are expected to remove 11 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere between now and 2012, thereby reducing the impact of climate change and saving the taxpayer over €220 in carbon purchases.”
We are well capable of planting more trees, we have the land to double the current forestation levels. But the industry must conduct itself in a sustained manner. “One of the main services provided by forests is climate change mitigation. This is strongly dependent on having young age classes to balance out harvest and other decreases in carbon stocks. In an Irish context, this involves the need to continue afforestation at 10,000ha for the next two decades,” said Doctor Hendrick.
“Not only will the carbon sink (a system that removes more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it releases) turn negative, but the level of wood energy supply will also fall-off as the forests mature and produce larger tree sizes destined more for higher value markets than fuel,” he said. He continued by adding that pushing forward the program of increased planting will “not only sustain the ability of the national forest estate to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but it will also provide a renewable energy resource and a sustainable raw material for construction, and a range of other uses.”
