Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 401: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the extent to which, in the course of the forestry planting programme, an effort is being made to ensure the planting of tree species most likely to be efficient in the context of carbon sequestration. [25971/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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All tree species grant-aided by my Department under the forestry grant schemes achieve high levels of carbon-sequestration. The potential of different tree species to sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere depends mainly on their rate of growth. Some conifer species grow rapidly and will begin to sequester considerable amounts of carbon early in their life. Other species, including some broadleaves, grow more slowly and do not sequester the same level of carbon until later in their life. Generally, as trees reach maturity, there is little difference in the total amount of carbon dioxide sequestered, when all species are compared.

The relationship between forests and carbon sequestration is a highly complex one and the efficiency of forests to absorb carbon is not dependent upon the tree species alone. Other factors such as soil type, previous land use, local climate, disease, fire, forest management activities, fertilisation and the rate of decomposition of forest organic matter all contribute, to greater or lesser degrees, to the overall forest carbon cycle.