Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

131 Chapter 5: Land Achieving a no net land take target has implications for how other national policies might be delivered. For example, under a no net land take target, the 33,000 homes sought under the Housing for All policy (Table 5.3) would be supplied each year without a consequent net increase in artificial surface area (according to the National Land Cover Map, artificial surface areas are currently 3.8% of Ireland’s land area). The GeoDirectory Residential Buildings Report 2023 identified 22,842 buildings under construction with 17.2% of the new construction activity occurring in Dublin (GeoDirectory, 2023). Based on the assessment of policies and strategies undertaken (Table 5.3), the most frequently occurring explicit expansion target is to increase the area under forestry. Of the policies assessed, six have targets for forestry expansion. These policies and associated targets have different purposes, such as increasing carbon sequestration, providing raw material for biomass or building and promoting ecosystem connectivity. Given that forestry is currently a pressure on protected habitats and on water quality, any expansion of forestry to meet climate action and sustainable development objectives must be done in a way that has a positive impact on biodiversity and water quality. 4 The National Forest Inventory uses a specific method to measure forestry, so its estimate of Ireland’s national forest cover is different from that of the National Land Cover Map. The figure provided by the Forest Inventory is considered the official statistic for forest cover in this chapter. The National Forest Inventory for 2022 4 identified that 808,850 ha (11.6%) of Ireland’s land area was forest (DAFM, 2023). Forest cover increased from 10% (697,842 ha) in 2006 to 11.6% in 2022. The Forest Strategy target of 18% by 2050 would mean that 1,256,116 ha of Ireland’s land area would be forest (on both public and private land), an increase of 447,266 ha. The Coillte target aims to supply 100,000 ha of new forest by 2050, which is just under one-quarter of the Forest Strategy target. The Food Vision 2030 and Ag Climatise targets of 8000 ha per year would take 43 years to achieve the Forest Strategy target (assuming that the Coillte target is achieved and counted as part of the overall Forest Strategy target). Ireland’s Climate Change Assessment (Thorne et al. , 2023) noted that for forests to contribute to net zero emissions would require between 25,000 and 30,000 ha of planting per year which is significantly higher than the 8000 ha outlined in the Forest Strategy. Figure 5.9 gives an indication of the forestry targets. Figure 5.9  Forestry levels in Ireland (2006 and 2022) and 2050 target levels 0 200,000 400,000 600,000 800,000 1,000,000 1,200,000 1,400,000 1,600,000 ˜ Existing forests, in ha ˜ Forest strategy targets, in ha ˜ Coillte strategy targets, in ha The area of existing forestry in Ireland is a little bigger than the area of county Cork The target area for forestry in is roughly the same as the area of counties Cork and Galway combined Area in ha 2006 2022 2050 Source: DAFM, 2023