Most farmers could earn more money by planting trees - why don't they?

Irish Times

4 days ago

To meet its
climate targets
and
avoid billions in EU fines
, the State must radically expand
tree cover
. But despite offering substantial incentives to farmers who forest their lands, planting has hit its lowest level since 1946.
Trees are one of the best tools available for drawing down carbon and a key part of the Government's plan to cut emissions in half by the end of this decade. To meet its climate goal, it aims to plant 8,000 hectares of trees a year by the end of this decade. And to fulfil a separate European goal of restoring degraded lands, much of that will need to be native broadleaf forest.
Farmers, who possess 70 per cent of the land in the Republic, are vital to achieving these aims. To enlist their help, the State offers grants and premiums to those who forest their fields. Payments are lucrative enough that, over the long term, most farmers could make more money by planting trees, according to Prof Cathal O'Donoghue, an economist at the University of Galway.
And yet, while premiums have only grown more substantial over the past two decades, farmers have planted fewer trees. A new premium scheme launched in 2023 was meant to reverse the decline, but in 2024, the State added just 1,573 hectares of new forest, the lowest number in nearly 80 years.
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In its recent report, the
Climate Change Advisory Council
and
Fiscal Advisory Council
warned that the State could owe
between €8 billion and €26 billion
to its European partners if it does not meet its 2030 climate goals. Those billions, they said, would be better spent now on slashing emissions, including by supporting forestry.
The
Department of Agriculture
says it 'offers a wide range of generous incentives to encourage people to plant trees,' but farmers don't appear persuaded. While the State is on track to plant more hectares this year than last, according to a spokesperson, it is still falling short of its forestry targets.
'It's clear already that farmers can, in the west of Ireland, make two or three times their current income by converting to forestry, and they're still not doing it,' says Ray Ó Foghlú, project lead at Hometree, a charity working with farmers to restore native forest. 'At the same time, I do believe there's probably a tipping point financially,' he says.
Given the looming EU fines, he says, 'I think there is maybe an argument here to pay farmers more'.
The Government provides grants that cover the full cost of planting as well as annual premiums, paid out over 20 years, ranging from €746 per hectare for spruce-dominated forest to more than €1,100 per hectare for broadleaf forest. Any new forest, whether grown for timber or not, accrues to the national climate goal.
Today, forests span 11 per cent of the State
Despite the incentives, there are material obstacles to planting forest. Many farmers are deterred by the lengthy and complicated application process. And rigid restrictions on where trees can and cannot be planted have
ruled out
'huge amounts of land,' according to
Forest Industries Ireland
.
Farmers also risk seeing their trees decimated by pests and disease. Ash dieback, caused by an invasive fungus, has afflicted some 16,000 hectares of forest over the past decade. A crisis to which the Government was slow to respond, critics say.
And more extreme weather, fuelled by climate change, poses a
growing risk
. In January, record winds from
Storm Éowyn
destroyed more than 23,000 hectares of forest.
Under the grant scheme, farmland that is converted to forest cannot, in most cases, be converted back. Even if a farmer sells his land, or passes it on to his children, forest must be maintained in perpetuity, with harvested trees continually replanted. Speaking to The Irish Times
,
farmers in Galway viewed this restriction as a big deterrent.
'When you have planted your land with forestry, you have no more options left. It's in forestry for good,' says Paul Finnegan, a consultant based near Ballinasloe who works with farmers to secure forestry grants.
In Ireland there is a huge tie to the land. The fact that you have land is worth more than the land itself
—
Farmer in UCD study
While premiums end after 20 years, forests continue to provide a valuable public service beyond that, he notes. Trees continue to filter groundwater and draw down carbon.
Broadleafs such as oak and willow provide a home to dozens of kids of birds, hundreds of insects, and thousands of lichens, mosses, and fungi. Even farmers who plant spruce for timber are required to install some broadleafs alongside and to supply open space for wildlife. 'The farmer provides this public good, which is now a permanent feature of his forest, without any reward going forward,' Finnegan says.
[
I bought the cheapest land I could find in Ireland. Now I'm planting a forest bigger than St Stephen's Green
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]
Beyond the bureaucratic hurdles, farmers say there is a pervasive stigma around forestry. Few say they would plant productive fields, and most say they would only forest land that was 'good for nothing else.'
For a 2013 study, researchers at
University College Dublin
(UCD) interviewed dozens of farmers in
Roscommon
,
Sligo
, and
Westmeath
, finding that few showed any serious interest in planting even after being told about the grants and premiums. The report found a widespread scepticism of forestry rooted in the nation's long history of tenant farming and famine.
'In Ireland there is a huge tie to the land. The fact that you have land is worth more than the land itself,' one farmer told researchers. 'To put your land in forestry is a sin.'
A follow-up study, based on a survey of more than 1,000 farmers across the State, concluded that most are not making decisions about forestry based primarily on financial calculus. 'They want to farm. They want to produce food. They consider it a shame to be planting trees on land used for food production,' said co-author Áine Ní Dhubháin, professor of forestry at UCD.
In a 2022 report, Prof O'Donoghue laid out several recommendations for expanding forest cover: Government should streamline licensing, loosen restrictions on where trees can be planted, and reconsider its ban on turning forest back into farmland. It should also look to establish a new agency dedicated to expanding forest cover, he said, and make yearly premiums generous enough to overcome resistance to planting.
Each tree is like a calf or a chicken to me
—
Westmeath farmer
Payments, Prof O'Donoghue says, should not just compensate farmers for loss of income from raising livestock, but for loss of a way of life. Given the rising cost of carbon and the urgent need to slash emissions, he adds, there is a sound economic case for raising premiums.
Echoing this point, Dr Martha O'Hagan Luff, a finance professor at Trinity College Dublin, writes that the Government must subsidise forestry 'to a level that reflects its value as a public good'.
Meanwhile, beyond supplying a financial incentive, UCD researchers say, the Government should highlight how cultivating trees can serve the community – and farmers themselves.
In 2021, dairy farmer Gerard Deegan, of Westmeath, converted his land to a mix of pasture and forest. He now grows around 60 varieties of tree on around 40 hectares, from spruce and pine to oak and sycamore. 'I wanted a diverse forest, something that would be here for nature,' he says in an online tour of his farm. 'Each tree is like a calf or a chicken to me.'
How has forestry in Ireland changed?
At one time, trees covered more than 80 per cent of Ireland, but over the centuries forests were supplanted by farms or harvested for their wood. Early in the 20th century, tree cover had been reduced to just 1 per cent.
Keen to shore up the supply of timber, the new Irish State began installing Douglas fir, Scots pine and Sitka spruce on marginal public lands. By the end of the 1980s, the Government had nearly exhausted available areas. To further expand tree cover, it would need to spur planting on private land, and so in 1989, it began paying premiums for forestry.
Today, forests span 11 per cent of the State, with roughly half of wooded areas covered in spruce.