Plan to take forestry to 17% of land area depends on farmer-owned land
The national farm research body predicts that by 2018, there will be over 800,000 hectares of forest, or 12% of Ireland’s total land area. Over 50% will be privately owned and the contribution of the private sector to overall timber supply will be greatly increased.
Teagasc also predicts that the average forest parcel size will increase to ten hectares, that the number of forest owners will increase by 500 per year, reaching 18,000 by 2018.
