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OF IRELAND’S TOTAL land surface area, just ten per cent is comprised of forests, which represents the second lowest proportional percentage of any country in Europe, according to Professor John O’Halloran at the International Union of Forest Research Organisations (IUFRO).
Speaking at the international conference in UCC, O’Halloran said Irish forests were critical to biodiversity and must be maintained and managed: “The uncertainty about future forest ownership and a slow down in the rate of planting may mean a decline in biodiversity and some species of conservation concern, reliant on the forests.”
The IUFRO – which is being partly organised by UCC and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine – has brought together scientists and practitioners from around the globe with a mission to discuss recent research and future directions forest biodiversity. It aims to build on the success of the first IUFRO International Conference on Biodiversity in Forest Ecosystems and Landscapes, which was held in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada in 2008.
“Forest biodiversity is not as prominent a part of the Ireland’s natural heritage as it is of most other countries. Although the majority of Ireland would once have been forested, Ireland’s forest cover was reduced over centuries by human activities. Forests comprise only about 10 per cent of Ireland’s total land surface area, the second lowest level of any country in Europe,” said O’Halloran.
The majority of the Ireland’s forests are conifer plantations from the twentieth century, with native woodlands making up only about 1 per cent of the country’s land area.
Approximately 30 per cent of the Earth’s surface is covered by forests, which have been shown to be valuable to society for many reasons -including heritage, landscape, timber, recreational opportunities, climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation. However, experts have raised concerns about a decline in forest biodiversity worldwide and have made conservation a global priority.
“The forests are critical as habitats and also ecosystem services such as carbon sinking and flood reduction,” said O’Halloran.
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Poor planning? Height restrictions that caused Dublin to sprawl into American style commuter suburbs which are impractical with high petrol costs and are now dormant ghost estates from the property market fall?
I wonder Andrew what connection your comment (er…er..rant) has with this story?
The article was about forests not the concrete jungle.
When you take a detailed look at the conditions attached to re afforestation grants one will understand why we are at a level of 10%.
Thank God that’s finished….
And our muppets are planning to sell that to private interests.
I think we are missing out on a huge opportunity to kill many birds with one stone by not dramatically increasing our forests.
There are many thousands of ex-building workers unemployed who could be taken off the dole and paid extra to plant trees. They already are used to physical labour and can drive plant & machinery. The cost of this could be recouped by increasing Irelands forests which would take up CO2 and help us meet CO2 emission targets. This would stop us being fined millions by the EU and is a very cheap way of offsetting the CO2 we pump into the air because we generate 90% of our electricity from fossil fuels. As the years roll on and the trees mature we then have a new asset which can earn the state an income and help pay for all those unfunded pensions. The economic spin offs in rural Ireland would also help reinvigorate the local economies, not to mention plant sales, repair, building, insurance etc. The unemployed would then be spared from emigration and the environment, animal life, tourism etc would benefit dramatically. I think it’s a scheme well worth borrowing for or using money from the government’s pension fund.
Great idea.
PS I can’t get an exact figure of what the fines will be within a few years but it’s of the order of €1,000,000,000 PER YEAR. The only other alternative is to buy very expensive carbon credits but there’s a limit of 10% of excess on that and we are 30% over our limits. We could hire 10,000 workers planting trees and paying for equipment etc with a billion. That billion would mainly stay in the Irish economy whereas the billion in fines goes to the EU central coffers.
Why can’t politicians think more than forward to the next election?
Great concept. This seems to be the type of thinking that is sadly missing from the countires leaders.
I would however prefer to plant native trees only. Ash and the like. Greater long term value but better for the environment and Tourism in the medium term.
Whenever I fly to England I’m always fascinated by the amount of forestry I can see from the plane just outside London. Its sickening how little woodland we have!
Jaysus. Need I remind you that the English chopped down our hardwood forests to build their bloody ships.
Its easy to hold onto your own resources whilst using up everybody else’s.
That’s because the Brits took a good chunk of it for their shipbuilding
I agree, even though I’m English, it was a criminal thing to do and I wish our Gov would help Ireland replant some of those trees. It won’t fix the past but it’s something.
The British are gone nearly a 100 years. We could have planted a lot of native forests since then. A useless excuse. The same type of excuse used for the large raptors like Sea Eagle and Golden Eagle. ” Da English gamekeepers/landowners killed them all”, we re-introduce them and kill most of the birds by poisoning/shooting!
That comment is 3 years old Feargal, good answer though.
Most of the Ireland is preserved for farming by the looks of things.
@Margaret Mc Avinue: Stop knocking the Poms woman, how many Irish Land owners had their sticky hands in the deal, your managment of your forests are a disgrace, look at that once beautifull Forest called “Ticnock” it’s been culled,and still there are no yound Sapling been planted why?
could this be part of the cause of all the flooding we’ve had in recent years.
No.
It could definitely contribute.
Yes actually
No. The reason for the flooding was……. let me think…… ooh ya it was that stuff falling out of the sky.
Got it…..RAIN.
Yes, thats right – rain- the wet stuff that falls from the sky, a large percentage of which is soaked up by areas of forestry, but in the absence of same forestry runs direct and unimpeded into our water courses where it accumulates in large volumes and causes soil erosion and widespread flooding in our towns and cities (many of which have been built on flood plains but that is a different story).
Please educate yourselves hamstrings and popcorn.
Ryan, whether the trees are oresent or not, the surface (grass/topsoil) and underlying strata is still permeable…unless the area has been overlain with an impermeable surface (concrete/macadam) but it’s not, and if it was additional drainage measures would have been required by the planners in any event.
Please educate yourself with regard to hydraulic design.
You’re wrong, creamy.
A simple google if “deforestation and flooding” might help.
And then you can get back to your hydraulic designs.
Hanstrings, I’m afraid you’re wrong. Who are you anyway? All you seem to do here is troll.
@Mattoid, The percentage of the country covered by forestry in 1990 was 6.4% its now 10% or there abouts. It wed actually less than 1% in the early 1990′s.
You just cannot correlate the recent ‘once in a lifetime floods’ we have experienced with not having enough trees.
Go and tell the people of Clonakilty, Gort, Clonmel, and Cork city centre and the other flood hot spots around the country that you are going to solve their flood problems by planting trees.
“Educate yourself”. I suggest you gets your facts straight before making comments off the top of your head.
Granting planning in the flood planes was unforgiveable and unfortunately irreversible.
http://www.indexmundi.com/ireland/land-area-covered-by-forest,-percentage.html
@Mattoid, The percentage of the country covered by forestry in 1990 was 6.4% its now 10% or there abouts. It wed actually less than 1% in the early 1990′s.
You just cannot correlate the recent ‘once in a lifetime floods’ we have experienced with not having enough trees.
Go and tell the people of Clonakilty, Gort, Clonmel, and Cork city centre and the other flood hot spots around the country that you are going to solve their flood problems by planting trees.
“Educate yourself”. I suggest you gets your facts straight before making comments off the top of your head.
Granting planning in the flood planes was unforgiveable and unfortunately
irreversible.
http://www.indexmundi.com/ireland/land-area-covered-by-forest,-percentage.html
Okay enough of this craic. I must go and light my lovely new wood burning stove.
Popcorn – I’m sorry to have to break the news to you, but its definitely you that’s wrong!
Agreed, our bouts of flooding in recent years have many causes, not least of which is wetter summers, building on areas that should never have been built on and associated flood defences just passing the problem on to the next town downstream.
The point is that woodland delays and reduces the movement of surface water by soaking up large volumes and providing a physical barrier to slow the flow. Like it or not, this is a recognised and quantifiable fact worldwide.
As Nivag said, you could do worse than google “deforestation and flooding” as a starting point…
@Mattoid. So the floods we have had in the last 20 years is all because of deforestation?
However, the facts state that Ireland has increased it area of forestry by nearly 40% in the same period.
Ooh you may be right (in your own mind) but you have demonstrated a total lack of ability to comprehend the obvious.
@Popcorn
“So the floods we have had in the last 20 years is all because of deforestation?”
Nobody is saying that – which posts have you been reading? The causes of flooding are complex and varied, and afforestation, or lack of, is but one of many factors.
It is simplistic in the extreme just to say that the percentage of forested land has increased in recent years therefore it can’t be connected to flooding, without looking at other compexities such as the geographical breakdown of both flooding and forestry. For example it could well be the case that heavily forested areas have escaped the worst of the flooding whilst the areas worst affected by flooding are the areas which have least forestry in their catchment areas.
If you care to do your research you will find that there is overwhelming empirical worldwide evidence that flooding is exacerbated wherever forests have been cleared.
PS – check your own figures for consistency – you have said that forestry cover in 1990 was 6.4% but was less than 1% in the early 1990′s ;-)
Well spotted. It was less than 1% in the early 1900′s. We’ve still increased our level of deforestation by nearly 40% in the last 20 years.
Therefore you cannot possible say that Irelands flooding in that period has been caused by deforestation.
You seem to be getting confused between deforestation and afforestation – I’ll put that down to a typo ;-)
My last point about geographical breakdown between forestry and flooding seems to have gone completely over your head.
I can’t even begin to post links to all the studies that have shown a clear link between deforestation and increased flooding, there are so many of them. All you need to do is look for yourself. Still, I’m sure you know best.
Yes it has.
The sad thing is that this is a victory of sorts. We are up to 10% now.
One of the principal causes of folding in urban areas (getting back to Andrew’s point at the top of the page) is urban sprawl. Water from roofs, roads, carparks etc. etc. is channelled and concentrated into surface water drainage systems to be almost immediately discharged into open watercourses (rivers) that can’t handle the volume. Like the lack of afforestation the principal cause of urban flooding is bad planning.
At least out chances of getting an alien predator will be reduced. They live hiding in those trees!!’
And the puppets in the dail think it’s a good idea to sell the last little bit of green to the Chinese!!
Apologies to all but there seems to be a general level of ignorance on some of the posts that forestry is forestry is forestry.
Conifer plantations, though they may bring economic benefits, recreational opportunities and may serve as a carbon sink, are an absolute disaster from an ecological point of view – they are deserts for wildlife and their acidic run-off causes huge problems for water pollution and fish spawning.
There is a world of difference between native broadleaved woodlands and commercial conifer plantations!
If you do anything there are downsides. The trick is a mixture of different trees. Conifers could be planted where they do least harm. An empty wilderness which seems to make up much of our mountainsides which is devoid of trees is hardly good for wildlife?
True, but that ‘empty wilderness’ would most likely have been an oakwood 300 years ago, and acidic run-off from forestry remains a serious threat to fisheries, not to mention the eutrophication caused by fertiliser run-off in the early years of a commercial plantation.
Just back from Estonia where it’s nearly 50% forest. I grew up in Tallaght and had a view of the Dublin mountains which were covered in trees, now they are very barren. I know it’s a working pine forest but the areas of plantation seem to have dwindled in the last 30 years. A lot of woodland was cut down for new housing estates too in the foothills.
Are you comparing Tallaght and Tallinn :p there.
A lot of roads there are named pineview ave/road/lawn etc from when these areas were built in the late 70s. Terrible that we’ve effectively removed a significant portion of that forest in less than 35yrs!
After this report, hopefully the penny will drop… But will anyone hear it???
these people aren’t stupid, they know the issues, they don’t care.
There was actually a talk on radio one a while ago about our forest area being decimated by England to build ships then used the land for agriculture which they then charged us high rents for. I am not blaming England, we had plenty of time to rebuild. But it was fascinating.
True, oak was highly prized for shipbuilding and many areas of native oakwoods were cut down for this purpose.
It’s true apparently, but those forests won’t be easily replaced because they were ancient hardwoods that had matured over centuries. I wish England and Ireland would work together to get replanting <3
They should bring in the Special Branch …
:-(
After leaving Ireland for mainland Europe, I can say the forests are astounding!! Leaving everything else aside, I don’t think I could go back to not having proper forests. They’re stunning!!
Speaking as a forester, the level of knowledge by urban Ireland is astounding but unsurprising. Some facts. Ireland’s forests support 16,000 jobs now. We grow the fastest trees in Europe, yet as a nation we are completely ignorant of the potential this industry has for unemployed People especially in rural areas. Another fact the saw milling sector which was 80% dependent on Irish construction sector during boom is now exporting 80% of its output to Europe. A great success story that is generating wealth and cash for ireland.
This nonsense about planting only native broadleaves is mad. We already plant 30% broadleaves and most will not yield any timber for at least 2-3 generations. Conifers will yield a return within 1 generation is creating sustainable jobs in forestry, tourism and other sectors. 18 million forests visits a year demonstrate tat people don’t care if they are conifers or broadleaves.
You have to balance that sustainability in jobs etc with the fact that there are negative impacts on water quality and biodiversity. There is a continued push to be able to plant forestry in ecologically sensitive areas, and its one of the top pressures/threats to Hen Harriers and a number of other upland breeding bird species that are in decline.
That doesn’t mean we can’t or shouldn’t plant commercial forestry, or more of it, it just means we shouldn’t get carried away with it either, which seems to have at least been threatening to happen (if not already happening) in recent years. Like everything else, it depends on how and where you do it if its going to be truly sustainable and provide a net benefit to the country.
This article is highly misleading. I remember a school textbook (likely published in the 70s) stating that 4% of Ireland was covered in forest. This World Bank report shows it at 6% in 1992: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/ireland/forest-area-percent-of-land-area-wb-data.html.
So rather than declining, human intervention has rapidly increased forest cover in the last 40 years.
As I said above Cormac, much of it is the wrong type of forest cover and is ecologically very damaging.
Sustainability? SUSTAINABILITY?
Oh No! It’s agenda 21!
I agree Joe Walsh but it takes up to 50 years for ash to mature and much longer for oak and beach .it takes forward selfless vision that is sadly lacking in this country for this to happen
On conifers acidifying water it is true but the reason is largely because conifers are excellent filters. They filter out all sorts of aerosols from the air and these are washed into the soils which eventually leads into rivers. The EPA along with the Forest Service have designated large areas as acid sensitive and planting of conifers and broadleaves are strictly controlled in these areas.
In the last 20 years afforestation guidelines have improved to protect and enhance biodiversity. Forests established in this time are and will support abundant biodiversity. Not many know this but the Hen Harrier (an endangered bird of prey) needs conifer plantations to be successful.
It is simply untrue to say modern plantations harm the environment. Most are managed using sustainable management techniques and are certified by the FSC as being so.
The Hen harrier does not need conifer plantations to be successful – the maturation and expansion of conifer plantations is one of the biggest threats to the Hen Harrier in Ireland at present. In the study which you’re referring to, Hen Harrier nests were positively associated with certain early-stage forestry, but thats largely down to a lack of habitat, and that same forestry houses numerous mesopredators that can then depredate the Hen Harrier eggs/chicks. Plantation forestry is bad for Hen Harriers, and if anyone tells you otherwise tell them to get in touch with Birdwatch Ireland or the Irish Raptor (bird of prey) Study Group and they’ll be able to set them straight.
So anything ever happen regarding this?
have your say