Incentives for Private Forestry: The Case of the Republic of Ireland

Abstract

Forest decline in the tropical zone of the world has provoked an enormous amount of concern but, so far, few if any panaceas. Leaving aside the pervasive impact of clearance for agriculture to focus for the time being exclusively on the role of timber extraction in the moist tropics, it appears that, in present circumstances at least, commercial logging is effectively incompatible with sustainable forest use. For this reason there is a developing interest in the potential which private-sector plantation forestry may have, in these areas, for significantly contributing to both local and export timber needs and so relieving pressure on the remaining area of natural forest. The peculiarly long-term character of investment in trees, and the capital-poor nature of the countries concerned mean, however, that financial incentives will almost certainly be necessary if plantations are to have real consequence.It is in this context that the recent history of the forest programme in Ireland, the country with the lowest overall proportion of forest cover and the highest percentage of state (as opposed to private) forestry in the EC, may be relevant. Forestry incentives introduced in 1980, and aimed at landowners in the agriculturally disadvantaged western region, were initially ineffective, despite the region's comparative advantages for timber-growing. However, major additions to the level and range of support in the second half of the 1980s, led to an exponential increase in grant-uptake.The very success of the above scheme in recent years has caused it to be critized for the loss of large areas of bogland which have considerable environmental value but low potential for timber production in any normal investment sense. In addition, plantations in all parts of the region are overwhelmingly coniferous. More generous, country-wide incentives for environmentally desirable broadleafed planting are too new for it to be known what effect they will have on the afforestation of the better land. It seems almost certain, however, that attempts to reconcile productive and environmental aims in private forestryprogrammes inevitably increase their complexity and cost: this has undesirable implications for the possible transfer of such schemes to developing countries in the tropics.