Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
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314. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if Ireland will make a commitment under the Bonn challenge; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45577/24]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland as a member of the European Union recognises the importance of halting and restoring the world's forests from the devastating impacts of deforestation. While Ireland does not intend to make a specific country pledge to the Bonn Challenge, it does recognise this important role this initiative has played in encouraging actions to restore degraded forests in many countries around the world. The EU supports a number of initiatives which also aim to protect the worlds forests and which complement the actions of the Bonn Challenge. The recently announced EU deforestation regulation is one such measure which will ensure that products that EU citizens consume do not contribute to deforestation or forest degradation. All operators placing certain commodities on the EU market for the first time will need to ensure that these commodities have not resulted in deforestation and degradation. The regulation applies to seven commodities which are coffee, cocoa, palm oil, soy, wood, rubber and cattle. The date of application for the regulation will be from the 30 December 2025 and six months later for small medium enterprises.

Nationally Ireland has also made a number of commitments to increase and restore our forests as outlined in Ireland's Forest Strategy and Climate Action Plans. We have set ambitious targets to increase our forest cover from our existing level of 11.6% to 18% nationally. We have put in place a well funded Forestry Programme where land owners are encouraged to plant trees and have a national afforestation target of 8,000 ha per year. Ireland's Forestry Programme will also support measures under the EU Nature Restoration Law to restore and expand our native forests. Ireland also contributes to the EU tree counter announced under the EU biodiversity strategy which commits to planting at least 3 billion additional trees in the EU by 2030. Ireland has pledged to date over 5 million native trees that have been planted under my Department’s Afforestation schemes since May 2020.

All these initiatives, including the Bonn Challenge, are complementary to each other and create the conditions to restore and protect the worlds forests.