Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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153. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the extent to which his Department has studied the extent to which the various species of trees grown here can contribute to carbon sequestration; if consideration has been given to the ability of species such as Sitka spruce or western red cedar which have shown particular properties in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24167/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Responsibility for carbon reporting and the submission of the National Inventory Report to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC), primarily lies with the EPA. Forest carbon measurement is overseen by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine based principally on the results of the National Forest Inventory. Differences in species growth and productivity is captured in the National Forest Inventory (NFI) and reflected in the National Inventory Report. Results from the NFI indicate that the carbon stock in forest soils is the dominant component and accounted for 85.1% of the total carbon stock in the forest estate in 2012. Total living tree biomass amounts to 12.7% of the total carbon stock, while deadwood, including logs, stumps and standing dead trees along with litter constitutes the remaining 2.2 %. The total carbon stock in the living tree biomass in 2012 amounted to 48.5 million tonnes. The NFI results in 2012 indicate that Sitka spruce accounted for 53.8% of the carbon stock by species, Norway spruce 3.9%, pines 9.5%, Douglas fir 2.4%, Larch 3.2 % and other conifer species, which includes western red cedar, 1.4% . The National Forest Inventory is currently preparing results from the most recent survey and will be published in the near future.