Grace O'Sullivan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It was good to hear the Minister of State talk about ecosystem services with regard to forestry. The one thing the previous speakers and I all have in common is that we would like to see more forestry in the right places in Ireland, which would require an increase in Government support for forestry. Forestry is unsurprisingly a topic of great interest to me as an ecologist and to the Green Party. As our agricultural model changes and adapts to a warming world and a globalised economy, forestry plays an ever-increasing role in supporting the income of farmers and managing our rural landscape. I emphasise that we, as a party, support the principle of using forestry to enhance our natural habitants, mitigate climate change and provide income to farmers and other landowners in Ireland. Forestry, when done right, can be an important social support, enhance the natural beauty of our island and provide habitats for species under threat.There is a "but" of course. I am sure the Minister of State is familiar with the work of the Save Leitrim campaign, as mentioned by my colleague, which opposes the blanketing of that stunning county in non-native coniferous spruce trees. The campaign has highlighted the social, environmental and economic effects of this campaign over recent years. Just this week I came across a video the group made comprising aerial shots of the dark monoculture plantations blotting out large areas, damaging soil and leaving devastation in the wake of the clear-cutting that removes every tree at once and leaves behind only debris. The social effects of these policies are as concerning as the environmental side of the matter. The people of Leitrim have talked of the feeling of a county emptying out, of people being replaced by dark, foreboding and unwelcoming plantations, of communities separated and of the mental health effects these rapid changes can have on people living there. The very model that the Government is supporting is one at odds with European norms. It damages our local communities and fosters such resentment towards forestry as a policy.

Another way is possible. The Green Party’s forestry policy has been in place for almost two decades, with some updates here and there, but based on the sound scientific principles that forestry should do more good than harm. We want to see a genuinely popular model closer to that followed in Germany and other European countries, which increases afforested areas but enhances rather than degrades the communities in which the trees exist. It is a model that prioritises continuous growth, which means that all the trees are not cut down in one massive cull rather harvested selectively, over time, and leaving continuous broadleaf cover in place. Broadleaf forests made up of natural species would also help restore the natural habitats that existed across Ireland for millennia before the land clearances of the past centuries. In areas of lower value land and high ecological importance, they can be a home for nature, a haven for species under threat and a way of restoring soils, stabilising water flows and preventing flooding and erosion.

There is a great disparity in forest cover between the south east, which enjoys considerable coverage, and the north west, which has almost none bar the commercial plantations of places like Leitrim. This was mentioned by Senator Mulherin. There are commercial and ecological reasons for this and the State may have a role to play in increasing coverage in areas where it might not be profitable for farmers and landowners to do so. State supports and the help of the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, will be essential in targeting this work, and the Government must do what it can to seek such assistance from the European Union, EU, in the next round of reforms to the CAP. Commissioner Hogan will be in this Chamber tomorrow and I hope to present those points to him as well.

The State also has a role to play in the creation of national parks, as Senator Lawless mentioned, areas in which the primary responsibility of planting and management would be the Government's. Such national parks would be huge natural tourism magnets and a national asset that would benefit Ireland, the global climate and the local communities through employment and leisure areas. It is my belief that we need to be aiming at planting 20,000 ha of such forestry planted per year, and that we need to be very wary of any strong EU push for biomass for energy, considering the poor delivery of most biomass on climate-related assessment criteria. Second and third generation biomass and biofuels will have a role to play but simple growing for burning is not without significant costs and negatives in almost all existing schemes.

I will conclude by saying that we need a new forestry plan that includes national parks, which stores carbon, restores wildlife, provides recreational access and improves water quality and flood management. We need one that is done in consultation and with the full engagement of local communities, and which takes into account the importance of locals' mental health, sense of community and county pride. With our partners in Europe and a major pivot from short-term profits to long-term social, environmental and economic gain, we can have a forestry policy and some beautiful forests to be proud of.

I have just come from a delivery at the front gate of tens of thousands of signatures to the Oireachtas. It was organised by BirdWatch Ireland, An Taisce and the Irish bee federation. They are here today because of their concerns about the Heritage Bill. Speaking about forestry in Ireland, I often wonder if we take into account the amount of linear forestry running through our landscape, providing a huge benefit to wildlife and ecological services in general. It contributes much economic benefit as well. This is something that should be considered and when the Heritage Bill is discussed, hedgerows should be considered as part of our overall forestry capacity.