IFA calls for more forestry funding

IFA Farm Forestry chairman, Pat Hennessy, has stressed that “additional funding needs to be made available to the Forest Road Grant Scheme for the remainder of 2008 and into the future”.

He said: “With over 40,000ha of farm forestry approaching first thinning, a budget of €9 million per annum for all forestry support schemes is not sufficient.”

He stressed that “stopping the Forest Road Grant Sscheme does not just impact on farmers trying to thin their plantations, but also impacts on the timber processing sector, particularly the boardmills and the wood energy sector that depend on the supply of timber from the private sector”.

In 2007, 13% of the total Irish timber harvest was produced by the private sector. This is equivalent to 400,000m3. However, with production forecasts it may rise to 5.9 million by 2015, there is a clear need for additional resources.

Mr Hennessy said: “Early thinnings are not profitable operations; already the cost of harvesting is one of the main obstacles to harvesting”. Without a forest road grant, these forests will not be thinned.

“It is scandalous that at a time when the Government promotes bio-energy through schemes such as the Greener Homes and the Reheat, is in the middle of a climate change campaign to reduce carbon emissions, and as oil prices continue to soar that it would not sufficiently fund forest roads that are a vital link to accessing this carbon neutral, renewable indigenous resource.”