Minister of State with responsibility for Forestry at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Senator Pippa Hackett, today announced the publication of the main findings of Ireland’s fourth National Forest Inventory (NFI). The publication of the NFI is the culmination of three years’ work by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to record and assess the extent and nature of Ireland’s forests, both public and private. The NFI is undertaken every 5 years, and this is the fourth Inventory to be published.
Commenting on the publication, the Minister said “This National Forest Inventory is the fourth undertaken by my Department since 2004, and it provides us with up-to-date information about the extent and changing nature of Ireland’s forests. The NFI cycles have provided results on aspects such as forest area change over time and the growing contribution that Ireland’s forests are making to national priorities such as climate change and biodiversity.”
“Our new €1.3bn Forestry Programme shows our commitment to growing the forest estate with a target of 18% cover by 2050. This is the biggest and largest funded forestry programme ever introduced by an Irish government, and it has been designed emphasise close to nature forestry and to ensure farmers will be its primary beneficiaries. Farmers will receive premiums for 20 years in the new Forestry Programme, and the premiums themselves will be up to 66% higher than the previous programme.”
In relation to the findings themselves, the Minister added “Overall we are seeing that the national forest estate is still expanding and has now reached 11.6% of the total land area, with a wide variety of forest types present. The increase in area is a result of afforestation and the natural development of semi-natural forests on areas such as those previously used for industrial peat extraction. Between 2006 and 2022 semi-natural forests are responsible for one-third (33.1%) of the new forest areas captured. I’m also pleased to note that the share of broadleaf species in the national forest estate now stands at 30.6%, an increase of 5.9% since the first NFI results were published in 2006, and we have designed the new incentives for broadleaf planting in the Forest Strategy Implementation Plan to drive this figure further.”
The total growing stock volume of Irish forests is over 142 million m³, an increase of over 25.5 million m³ since 2017.The balance between increment and fellings is an important indicator as it describes the sustainability of wood production over time, the current availability of wood and the potential for the future. Gross annual volume increment between 2017 and 2022 was 10 million m³ per year, while over the same period the mean annual standing volume felled was 4.1 million m3 per year. For the first time the forest ownership balance has changed, where now private forest owners, mainly farmers, now own approximately 50.9% of the national forest estate with the remainder in public ownership, mainly Coillte.
The Minister also advised that “the information provided by the NFI remains crucial in the formulation of Government policy. Government policy needs to be under-pinned and monitored using accurate, current information, and the data provided by the NFI is an excellent resource. The recent work on the development of Ireland’s Forest Strategy is a good example of this”.
The Minister also expressed her appreciation to all landowners for facilitating access to their lands during the course of the NFI data collection.
All NFI publications, including the main findings booklet are available on the Department’s website. Further information on the NFI may be obtained from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Johnstown Castle Estate, Co. Wexford; Tel: 053 9163400 or email: nfi@agriculture.gov.ie
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Note for Editors
The purpose of the National Forest Inventory (NFI) is to record and assess the extent and nature of Ireland’s forests, both public and private, in a timely, accurate and reproducible manner to enable the sustainable development of our forest resource. Reliable, current and consistent information is required to inform domestic forest policy, to support forest research and fulfil national and international reporting commitments.
The Inventory was undertaken by DAFM and involved a detailed nationwide field survey of Ireland's forests using a set of 2,033 permanent sample plots based on a randomised systematic grid sample design. The survey assessed the current extent, composition, condition and change in the national forest estate, both public and private. The information encompasses the traditional parameters such as area, growing stock and tree species composition in the national forest estate as well as information with regard to biodiversity, health and vitality, carbon stocks and soil type. Changes in Irish forests can now be assessed through comparisons with the previous three NFI cycles, completed in 2006, 2012 and 2017.
Between 2004 and 2006 the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine carried out the first NFI of Ireland’s forests, with results published in 2007. The 2006 NFI was the first purely statistical approach to forest inventory undertaken in Ireland to provide an assessment of growing stock in both the public and private national forest estates.
In order to assess changes in the state of Ireland’s forests over time, Ireland’s NFI was designed using permanent sample plots which facilitated a repeat measurement programme. This robust reporting strategy was adopted to provide credible information to address strategic objectives and reporting commitments. The fieldwork for the fourth NFI began in February 2020 and was completed in March 2022.
The main findings booklet is a compact and comprehensive overview of the results of the fourth NFI cycle along with a comparison of results with the three previous NFIs. Ten key findings of the third National Forest Inventory completed in 2022 are as follows:
- The national forest estate is still expanding and has now reached 11.6% of the total land area, with a wide variety of forest types present. The total forest area has increased from 697,842 hectares (ha) in 2006 to 808,848 ha in 2022. The increase in area is a result of afforestation and natural development of semi-natural forests. Between 2006 and 2022 semi-natural forests are responsible for one-third (33.1%) of the new forest areas captured.
- For the first time more than half (411,484 ha or 50.9%) of forests are in private ownership and 397,364 ha (49.1%) in public ownership. The share of private forests in the national forest estate has increased by over 7.9% since 2006.
- Leitrim is the county with the highest percentage of forest cover (20.1%), while Cork has the largest forest area (92,471 ha).
- Broadleaf tree species account for nearly of one-third (30.6%) of the stocked forest area while conifer species are the dominant species present, representing 69.4%. The share of broadleaf species has increased nationally by 5.9% between 2006 and 2022.
- The age-profile of forests is increasing with 39.6% of stocked forests being less than 20 years of age and 30.4% between the ages of 21 and 30 years.
- The total growing stock volume of Irish forests is estimated to be over 142 million m³, an increase of over 25.5 million m³ since 2017. Gross annual volume increment between 2017 and 2022 was 10 million m³ per year, while the mean annual standing volume felled within this period was 4.1 million m3 per year.
- Since 2017, 39,640 ha of forests were thinned for the first time, which is a positive for wood mobilisation. The area thinned between 2017 and 2022 has increased by 8% while the area clearfelled has decreased by 42% over the same period.
- Forests play an important role in mitigating climate change by sequestering and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide. The results indicate that the national forest estate is an important sink for carbon, at 323.5 million tonnes of carbon.
- Irish forests are a rich resource of biodiversity providing important and abundant habitats for many species. Nearly one-third of Ireland’s forests have four or more tree species present. Also, large quantities of deadwood are present within the forest, with 10.2 million m3 of deadwood present.
- Overall, the forest estate appears healthy. While nearly two-thirds (63.2%) of stocked forest areas displayed signs of forest damage present, the severity of the damage was primarily low to moderate. Damage caused by animals, competing vegetation, exposure and nutrient deficiency were the most common damage.