Following on from the publication of phase 2 of the Land Use Review https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-climate-energy-and-the-environment/publications/land-use-review-phase-2/and the strong recognition of the role of forests in climate change mitigation comes Towards a Just Transition in Agriculture and Land Use, published in recent days by the Just Transition Commission.
The Commission’s Report https://justtransitioncommission.ie/commission-publishes-towards-a-just-transition-in-agriculture-and-land-use/examines a range of policies and measures towards increased provision of ecosystem services, including climate change mitigation through forestry. All through the lens of having a just transition for landowners and farmers towards new practices and land use for the provision of ecosystem services. To facilitate the transition the report recommends that the next offering of ACRES, the Forestry Programme and other schemes should facilitate increased subscription numbers, more equitable access, and additional funding with more specific support for climate action measures. In the same vein, the Commission recommends long-term funding and equitable access to government supports and by ensuring that all schemes such as ACRES or the Forestry Programme appropriately reward climate and biodiversity actions and ecosystem services.
There is nothing there that SmartEarth can argue with, nor the leading key recommendation that the Government urgently convene a national dialogue to develop a shared long-term vision for Irish agriculture, land use and thriving rural communities, grounded in the Just Transition Principles.
The primary vehicle for grant aid transfers to farmers and landowners is the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), with the new 7-year (2028-2034) programme under negotiation. As always there is a gap between the Commission’s offering of €300 billion, with the Parliament, some member states and agricultural coalitions seeking well in excess of that figure. Negotiations on the budget and the composition of the CAP continue under the current Irish EU Presidency.
One of the key challenges in our view in CAP support for a just transition in land use centres around returns to both landowners and wider society from support for ecosystem services. Fair rates of support are needed by landowners to consider a land-use change. At the same time, public funds need clearly specified outcomes.
ACRES, the CAP-funded Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) has the aim to address biodiversity decline, climate change, and water quality issues, while simultaneously providing income support. Five specific tree planting measures are supported under the scheme, which compensate individual farmers for tree establishment, ongoing maintenance and fencing. These range from native tree planting (a minimum of 10 trees, and up to 200 trees), to establishment of riparian woodland and hedgerows. None are at a forest scale and to our knowledge there is no follow-up post ACRES to determine if the trees planted and riparian areas continue in existence. From a climate change mitigation perspective, the effectiveness of these measures is open to question. In contrast forest establishment is a permanent land-use change, carries a 20-year annual premium for farmers, and very importantly the areas afforested can be included when counting the uptake of carbon dioxide at national level using existing models and procedures.
Forest establishment is funded at a national level and as such is administered and promoted separately to CAP. Afforestation increased in 2025 to over 2,800 ha, and while very welcome for the climate change mitigation and other environmental services, is still well below an annual level of 8,000 ha set out in the Climate Action Plan. Analysis by COFORD and the Climate Change Advisory Council advocates for levels of 16,000 ha per year to attempt to reach net zero by mid-century or in the decade thereafter.
To reach these levels of new forest establishment call for closer alignment between the afforestation programme and next iteration of support measures under CAP. Scale is required at both the individual forest parcel area (a minimum of 4-5 ha) and at the national level in order to deliver for both landowners and at the funders. Also, the species compositions in current afforestation, which is currently 70 percent broadleaf, largely as a result of differential grant aid and annual premiums viz a viz conifer species. This to provide for higher levels of sequestration that conifers provide. Here we are talking of mixed forest, with compatible species, which will be easily managed and provide income from wood sales for landowners within a 2-decade timeframe.
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