SmartEarth welcomes the publication in recent days of A Living Land, part two of the land-use review, which has been compiled under the auspices of number of government departments with responsibility for climate change, agriculture and forestry and biodiversity. https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/ade00673/A_Living_Land_-_Report_of_Phase_2_of_the_Land_Use_Review.pdf
The overall context is the role that land use and land-use change can play in addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation, against a background of current and projected underachievement in reaching national and EU greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, as outlined in recent EPA reports.
In a wider context the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its Special Report on Climate Change and Land states that sustainable land management and land-use change are essential to meeting global climate targets. But only in the presence of immediate and deep cuts in all greenhouse gases across all sectors. https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/
Returning to the publication its purpose was to compile an evidence-based review for the government and to present a framework to inform and support policymakers and land holders in their decisions related to future land use patterns in Ireland. It also states that it is not an articulation of government policy in relation to land use.
Nevertheless, the overall conclusions of the report are welcome as far as land-use change are concerned. It comes as no surprise that a greatly expanded national afforestation programme to 16,000 ha per year is one of the main policy suggestions. A case is also made to re-consider bioenergy crops and to expand the mitigation horizon to include bioenergy with carbon capture and storage. Missing from the big picture, however, is a greatly expanded role that wood products sourced and used on the island need to play in construction and other uses. Also, the forests of the future are being planted today, and will grow through a changing climate no matter what levels of greenhouse gas reductions are made. Species composition and forest management must therefore factor in adaption to climate change.
While agroforestry may have a role to play in land-use change, evidence points to the need for new forests to be established at scale, and in a way to capture carbon quickly and in a cost-effective way. The current predominance of broadleaves in the afforestation programme needs to be critically examined if climate mitigation is one of key goals of the measure. Simply stated a broadleaf-dominated programme will not provide the level of greenhouse gas removals needed over the coming decades. Balance is needed.
While the government intends to further examine the implications of the land-use review process, subsidies are a key element in decisions that landowners make when deciding on how best to use their land. Recent iterations of measures under the Common Agricultural Policy have not included forestry as a measure, rather it has been funded at national level. If there is serious intent to expand the role of forests and forest products in the mitigation space, then the new measures need to include a strong element of forest expansion and avoid the impermanent nature of some of the current interventions. Again, scale and forest composition are key considerations in designing measures. And not just for climate change mitigation, but for landowners who expect a decent and long-term return from changing land use to forest, by way of premiums, wood sales and future linkages to carbon markets.
These are far-reaching policy issues, and difficult choices need to be made if the state is serious about the role of land use in climate change mitigation.
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