Afforestation in Louth last year lowest in country

Louth, along with Dublin, were the only counties in Ireland where no afforestation took place last year. This is according to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine's annual forest statistics report for 2022, released today.

Afforestation is the process of establishing a forest, especially on land not previously forested. In Louth, no afforestation took place in 2021, two hectares were afforested in 2020 and one hectare afforested in 2019. The county with the highest level of afforestation took place, was Cork with 343 hectares afforested.

Looking at neighbouring counties, in Monaghan 17 hectares were afforested in 2021 and in Meath 44 hectares. 

Of the afforestation that took place in Louth over the past three years, all three hectares were as a result of private afforestation. In 2020, the two hectares afforested was carried out by a non-farmer and in 2019, the one hectare that was afforested was carries out by a farmer.

The number of individual owners that have afforested in Louth between 1980–2021 is 87, covering 722 hectares in total.

Launching ‘Ireland Forest Statistics 2022’, Minister of State with responsibility for Forestry, Pippa Hackett said:

“Overall the national forest estate is still expanding and has now reached 11.6% of the total land area or 808,848 hectares. This expansion in the total forest area is as a result of direct afforestation and also the natural expansion of semi-natural forests. For the first time in the history of the state, the area of privately owned forests exceeds the area of publicly owned forests.”

Noting the decreasing trend in the area being afforested annually, the Minister said: “This is something that needs to be addressed and the work of Project Woodland will be key in establishing a way forward through the development of a new forest strategy and forestry programme.

"Incentivising the creation of new forests through our new forestry programme, which will come into place in January 2023, will be essential to meeting not only our economic objectives but also our climate change targets and our aims in terms of enhancing biodiversity.”