The number of forestry licences issued this year continues to increase, with a jump of 34% when compared with the same period in 2021. Minister of State for Lan.
March 1, 2021 11:46 am
Last week (Thursday, February 25), the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine revealed ‘Project Woodland’ – a new strategy to address the issues in the forestry sector.
The initiative comes on the back of a report by Jo O’Hara, a private consultant who was formally a British forestry commissioner; the chief forester for Scotland; and the chief executive of Scottish Forestry.
Her report was commissioned by the department in the hope that it would suggest ways to implement the recommendations of an earlier report – the Mackinnon Report – into the various challenges the sector faces.
In her report (which was also published last week), O’Hara proposed that the Mackinnon recommendations be divided into four ‘workstreams’, each tackling a different area.
Ministers McConalogue and Hackett announce âProject Woodlandâ to tackle issues in forestry Workstreams with stakeholder input to deliver action on backlog and new strategy Irish Rural Link to assess community needs
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue T.D. and the Minister of State Senator Pippa Hackett today announced âProject Woodlandâ, an initiative to tackle issues in forestry in Ireland and drive forward the planting of trees. The Ministers accepted a report on reforming the Irish Forestry Licensing system, and committed to its immediate implementation.
Welcoming the announcement, Minister Charlie McConalogue stated,
âI am delighted to help launch the new strategy for our forestry sector and I give my support to Project Woodland. The new initiative is aimed at solving many of the issues which has mired the forestry sector in recent times. Working alongside my colleague in the Department of
February 23, 2021 1:18 pm
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is “moving the goal posts” on ecology reviews for tree felling applications, according to the agriculture spokesperson for the Labour Party.
This is because, Seán Sherlock said, the department is “insisting” that a Natura Impact Assessment (NIS) is required in order to prioritise tree felling applications.
“An NIS is a further cost to the applicant, after the fact of submitting an application,” the Cork East TD argued.
There are 1,890 applications still on file to be assessed [by ecologists]. The department is prioritising files where the applicant has provided an NIS.