Farmers squeezed out of forest industry because they can’t get licences

Faced with licensing difficulties and costs, more and more farmers opt to sell their trees to investment funds

Rather than pay the high cost for ecologists to prepare a Natura Impact Statement, which can cut months off the time to get a forestry licence, farmers are opting to sell to investment funds that are better prepared for the bureaucracy and delays.

There’s a collapse in farm forestry nationally, and in the percentage of farmers planting.

The percentage of farmers who availed of afforestation grants in 2020 was 24% (compared to non-farmers); 50% in 2018; 64% in 2016; and 96% in 2014.