Forestry

The Forest Service is responsible for ensuring the development of Forestry within Ireland in a manner and to a scale that maximises its contribution to national socio-economic well-being on a sustainable basis that is compatible with the protection of the environment.

In this section you can learn more about the services, supports and information available from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine for this sector.

Open Call for Proposals for Woodland Support Projects for 2021/2022 - Specification and Application Form

The Forestry Licence Viewer is an online tool that provides information on forestry licence applications. The Viewer allows the user to search by application reference number; select an application from the recent applications list; or, to simply zoom in on a site.

This is the second phase of the project, which provides application documentation. Documentation will be made available for applications received from 11th January, 2021, when they are opened for public consultation. An additional tab will become available when a site is selected, where the user will be presented with the available documents, which can be opened to read. Further documents will appear when the application is decided, which is when the full suite of assessment and other documents become available.

Submissions received on forestry licence applications will be uploaded to the viewer as they are received and processed.

The Viewer will be released in phases. Phase 1 was released on 1st December, 2020. The next phase will provide a facility to make a submission on a forestry licence application and to pay the fee, which will be released later this spring.

Forestry Licence Viewer

Licence Applications for Felling, Afforestation and Forest Roads - Register of Decisions

Forestry and the Law

DRAFT Plan for Forests & Freshwater Pearl Mussel in Ireland

Fire Management

• Public Consultation on Licence Applications for Felling, Afforestation, Forest Roads and Aerial Fertilisation
• Public Consultation on Additional Information in relation to certain Forestry Licence Applications
• Licence Applications for Felling, Afforestation and Forest Roads - Register of Decisions
• Forestry Programme 2014 – 2020: Consultation

• Schemes and Payments
• Forestry Grants and Premium Schemes 2014 - 2022 Circulars
• IFORIS Internet
• Applying for a Forestry Premium Online

• Item was unpublished or removed

• Grant-aided Forestry - Change of Ownership or Applicant

• Forestry Division Monthly Reports

• Ireland's National Forest Inventory (NFI)
• LULUCF Regulation
• Forest Management Tools
• Forest Statistics and Mapping
• Forests, products and people - Ireland's forest policy, a renewed vision

Reports

• EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) & Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT)

• Forestry Appeals Committee (FAC)

[document 109258 ]

• COFORD Forestry Research
• Competitive Forestry Research for Development Programme

• Wood Packaging Material and ISPM 15

• Forestry Policy Group chaired by MoS Hackett

Review of Approval Processes for Afforestation in Ireland- Mackinnon 2019

Implementation of the Mackinnon Report into Forestry application processes in Ireland

Project Charter

Project Board Interim Reports

• Forest Health

The Forest Service of the Department is responsible for implementing EU Council Directive 1999/105/EC on the marketing of forest reproductive material.

Forest reproductive material (FRM) is a collective term to describe seeds, plants and cuttings, which are important for forestry purposes.

The aim of the legislation is to ensure that forest reproductive material, which is marketed, is from approved suitable sources and is clearly labelled and identified throughout the entire process from tree seed collection to processing, storage, forest nursery production and delivery to the final forest user.

The Forest Service of the Department is also the National Designated Authority in Ireland for the OECD Scheme for the Certification of Forest Reproductive Material Moving in International Trade otherwise known as the ‘OECD Forest Seed and Plant Scheme’.

The object of the international OECD Scheme is to encourage the production and use of forest seeds, parts of plants and plants that have been collected, transported, processed, raised and distributed in a manner that ensures their trueness to name. Material covered by the Scheme is intended for use in a variety of forestry purposes.

Post BREXIT the OECD is Scheme is the certification system required for all imports and exports of forest reproductive material to and from Great Britain.

Forest seed and plants are also be subject to the requirements of the EU Plant Health Regulation 2016/2031 on protective measures against pests of plants.

The following services are available:

• Registration of seed stands

• Registration of suppliers of forest reproductive material - seed collectors, nurseries, seed and plant importers and brokers

• Issuing of Seed Collection Permits and Master Certificates of Provenance for seed collections

• Certification of exports of forest seeds and plants to non-EU countries, who are members of the OECD Forest Seed and Plant Scheme such as UK(GB)

• Advice on forest seed and plant regulations

For additional information on Forest Reproductive Material (FRM), see the documents and links below:

• Statutory Instrument No. 618, European Communities (Marketing of Forest Reproductive Material) Regulations 2002
• FORMATIS – EU Forest Reproductive Material Information System

On the basis of national registers of planted forest tree species called basic material, the Commission draws up an EU list so that the scheme operates smoothly throughout the EU. The Commission's Forest Reproductive Material Information System (FOREMATIS) provides a search tool for forest breeders, forest nurserymen, experts and the general public, functioning as a repository linked with EU countries' data of planted forest tree species.

FOREMATIS provides access to the data of the national registers, containing the details of approved basic material including data on areas or geographic location - essential for determining if a particular material is suitable for a site. After harvesting, a master certificate is issued with a unique register reference for information and traceability

OECD Forest Seed and Plant Scheme

The OECD Scheme for the Certification of Forest Reproductive Material Moving in International Trade, known as the ‘OECD Forest Seed and Plant Scheme’ seeks to encourage the production and use of forest tree seeds or plants that have been collected, processed, raised, labelled and distributed in a manner that ensures their trueness to name.

EU Review of EU Forest Reproductive Material

For further information concerning the above please contact -

• Tree Felling Licences
• Form to Report Alleged Illegal Tree Felling

Forestry Licensing Plan 2022