IFA's national farm forestry conference to be held in Offaly this week

The Irish Farmers Association will hold its National Farm Forestry conference on this Thursday, June 8 in the Tullamore Court Hotel commencing at 10am, with registration from 9.30am.

IFA Farm Forestry Chair Jason Fleming said the conference aims to provide a platform for farmers and forest owners to hear and engage with policy makers and experts on a range of topics focused on how we can create a viable future farm forestry sector. It will explore potential future opportunities, including forest carbon.

"If we are to restore confidence among farmers in forestry as a land use option and plant at the scale required to meet our climate targets, we need to bring together all stakeholders to understand and address issues that are holding farmers back from planting and look at the new opportunities within the sector,” said Jason Fleming.

The keynote address will be delivered by Pippa Hackett, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

The morning session will focus on future forest policy and supports; ash dieback; managing forests in the current regulatory environment; and opportunities provided by agroforestry. Speakers include Marina Conway, Western Forestry Co-op, representatives from DAFM Forest Service and Dr. Jim McAdam, Irish Agroforestry Forum.

The afternoon session will introduce forest carbon, the work that is ongoing to provide a framework for valuing carbon as well as an example of an operational voluntary forest carbon scheme. Speakers include Pat Snowdon, UK Woodland Carbon Code, Fergus Moores, DAFM and Tom Houlihan, Forestry Specialist, Teagasc.

There will be panel Q&A sessions after each session where participants will also can pose their own questions, and actively participate in the discussions.

There is no charge to attend this conference, but spaces are limited so please register your interest at www.ifa.ie/Forest23.