Focus on regulatory review and improvement in licencing output
The Minister of State for Land Use and Biodiversity, Senator Pippa Hackett, today, chaired the 9th meeting of the Forestry Policy Group (FPG). Project Woodland is the Minister’s initiative to improve the forestry licensing system and to reform forestry policy in Ireland.
The Minister welcomed an update on further progress on Project Woodland from its Project Board and the chairs of its Working Groups. In addition, Irish Rural Link (IRL) presented the findings of their report ‘Assessment of Attitudes by Communities and Interested Parties on Forestry and Woodlands’, which will be central to the development of a new Forestry Strategy for Ireland. Philip Lee and Associates presented their draft report on the regulatory review of the forestry licensing process.
The Minister welcomed the Irish Rural Link report saying:
“Hearing the views and attitudes of people and communities towards forests and woodlands is essential to inform a ‘Shared National Vision’ on Forestry”.
Seamus Boland of Irish Rural Link advised the meeting that the main purpose of their assessment was to gather the views and attitudes of people and communities towards forests and woodlands which will help to inform a ‘Shared National Vision’. He informed the meeting that many views across a range of issues were canvassed resulting in 85% of respondents feeling that there was too little forestry happening in Ireland, and just 4% saying there was too much, with 11% saying just the right amount. 89% of respondents said that they would like to see more wood used in the construction sector and 72% would like to see more wood used for energy production. It is now open to members to respond to the report and it will then be finalised. These results show the potential for growth that exists and the final report will provide a lot of very valuable information to bring forward into the development of our new Forest Strategy. This report will be finalised shortly and published.
The Minister also addressed the current licensing situation saying:
“Improving the output of forestry licences is a key objective of Project Woodland and our Forestry Licensing Plan outlines our ambitions to significantly increase output this year. I am pleased to say that we are meeting the overall target in the plan and that output across all categories of licence is well above 2021 levels which will be reflected in the Q1 update to be published next week. We have recently recruited additional ecologists, which I am confident will have a further positive impact, particularly on the number of afforestation licences issued by the end of May.”
The Minister noted the recently launched public consultation survey on the future of forests in Ireland. The survey is open to all and can be accessed on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s website until the 27th of April. Minister Hackett confirmed that over 1,000 responses have already been submitted and encouraged all members to take part in the survey and make their views known.
Alice Whittaker of Philip Lee and Associates presented a comprehensive review of the existing statutory framework for the licensing of forestry activities in relation to environmental and public participation obligations. This report was commissioned under Project Woodland to provide practical advice to the Department on how to work more efficiently within the existing EU legal framework. Working Group members were invited to comment on the current draft of the report in advance of the final report being drafted and published.
The Minister concluded by expressing her appreciation for the work of the Working Group chairs and thanked members of the Forestry Policy Group for their hard work and commitment, noting their continued efforts have resulted in real progress in recent months.
