Forestry investor expects more Mayo landowners to enter sector

A forestry investor with a plantation near Ballyhaunis thinks a new, more nature-friendly approach to tree growing is a move in the right direction.

Paul McMahon, head of SLM Silva Fund, which owns a forest near Gurraune on the Ballyhaunis-Cloonfad road, also expects reforms allowing carbon credits on forestry will encourage more into the sector. Mr McMahon sees forestry as an opportunity for farmers who want to get better economic returns on marginal lands. His company invests in existing forestry, purchasing the woodlands and sustainably managing them.

While his company grows coniferous trees like spruces, it also takes a different management approach to plantations. Rather than clear-felling trees at maturity, the firm’s foresters harvest trees over time so that there’s always tree cover on the land. 

“You can regenerate an existing forest more naturally so you have continuous cover,” explained Mr McMahon.

It’s an approach that’s common in much of Europe but one that hasn’t been practiced in Ireland. The clear-felling approach is “ugly”, notes Mr McMahon, but also means the forests are of lesser value to nature given cover is completely erased in harvesting.

Another approach where he differs is the planting regulation which requires 20% of any trees planted to be native species like alder or birch. Mr McMahon believes in co-mingling trees rather than planting them in strips on the perimeter as is the common practice in plantations to date. That approach would create more pockets of biodiverse plantation rather than dense, dark swathes of spruce which local communities also find objectionable.

Mr McMahon sees “great potential” in the trading of carbon offsets which would see credits being generated from forestry (a major absorber of carbon emissions) as a separate new income stream. He sees such a market emerging in the next five years as the Government, which to date counted all carbon offsets as state property, is forced to adapt emerging new EU policies.

Government forestry policy encourages new approaches to forestry, such as interplanting of species, said Mr McMahon. He sees this as “a step in the right direction”, and while he views spruce as a “great species” that will continue to be grown, he thinks a new approach to forestry will be better received by communities.

Ireland is a great place to grow forestry and the country has developed a very successful sawmilling and wood board industry, explained Mr McMahon.

While Ireland’s climate and land lend themselves to good tree growth, there have also been mistakes: His book ‘Island of Woods: How Ireland Lost its Forests and How to Get them Back’ suggested up to a third of the country’s commercial forests have been planted on peatlands, compromising tree growth and timber quality.

The SLM Silva Fund is run by SLM Partners, an investment firms with over EUR500 million in investments in sustainable agriculture and forestry projects globally. Its Irish investments are supported by the European Investment Bank.