Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 283: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the figures detailing the amount of afforestation in each year from 1990 on peat soils which she has supplied in connection with Article 3.3 of the Kyoto Protocol. [13953/06]

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 284: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the scientific calculations her Department is making for the effect of emissions of greenhouse gases when peat soils are afforested and when they are harvested. [13954/06]

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 285: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the scientific definition of peat soils used by her Department. [13955/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 283 to 285, inclusive, together.

The definition of peat soils used by my Department is taken from the Peatlands of Ireland, Soil Survey Bulletin by R.F. Hammond, 1979. It constitutes a peat layer greater than 30 cm on drained peats and greater than 45 cm on undrained peats.

Based on research and the Good Practice Guidance for Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, an emission factor of 14.66 tonnes of carbon dioxide, per ha., per year for the first four years following afforestation is applied to peat soils. This amount is deducted from the carbon dioxide uptake by the growing forest.

In accordance with the IPCC good practice guidance, soil emissions are not applied to forest land which is harvested. The estimated areas of peat soils afforested each year from 1990 to 2004, and projected over the period 2005-12, used as the basis for calculating carbon sequestration over the period 2008-12, the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, and supplied in connection with Article 3.3 of the Kyoto Protocol are set out in the following table.

My Department's analysis shows a downward trend for planting on peat soils over the period 1990 to 2003 from 56.7% to 29.9%. The figures supplied for 2005 to 2012 were estimates, with the area of peat soils afforested fixed at 29.9% representing a no-change scenario. In reality, it is expected that the downward trend will continue and the above figures will be adjusted in the light of information from the planting programme, the national forest inventory and research.

As regards my policy on the afforestation of peat lands, my Department has very strict procedures in place. These procedures effectively rule out grant aid for planting on intact raised bogs of the midlands, or the impoverished, oligotrophic deep blanket peats of the west.