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Services Accounts

The Forests and Woodlands 2012-2022 Frontier Series release was published on 20 March 2024, however, Coillte has since notified the CSO that the data it provided on the area of forests and woodlands for 2012 and 2015 has been revised. As a result of this, the CSO will update this publication based on the new input data, which will change the Extent and Tree Cover Density data for those years. We will notify users when these revisions have been applied.

Forests & Woodlands stored 323 million tonnes of carbon in 2022, up almost 13% on 2012

CSO statistical release, , 11am
A CSO Frontier Series Output

This publication is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as it may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example new administrative data sources. 

Services Accounts

Forests & Woodlands provide a wide range of ecosystem services - in this publication, we will focus on two - Wood provision and Global climate regulation.

The Wood provision ecosystem service is the contribution of ecosystems to the increase in timber available for harvesting. This is measured as the net annual increment, or increase in volume, of timber. For ecosystem accounting, and for economic accounting, a distinction is made between Forests Available for Wood Supply (FAWS) and Forests Not Available for Wood Supply (FNAWS). The net annual increment for FAWS is considered the wood provision ecosystem service provided to society by Forests & Woodlands, as this is the increase in wood available to be harvested from managed forests. 

The Global climate regulation service is the contribution of ecosystems to reducing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. In this case, we are focusing on the removal (net sequestration) of carbon from the atmosphere and the retention (storage) of carbon in ecosystems. 

In an ecosystem accounting context, supply and use tables are accounting tables structured to record flows of final ecosystem services between ecosystems and economic units. Entries can be made in physical and monetary terms, and the tables are designed to be coherent with the System of National Accounts.  

In 2022 the volume of timber available for harvesting in Forests & Woodlands grew by more than 9 million m3. Because all of this has the potential to be harvested by the Forestry industry, all of this growth was classified in the Use table as Intermediate consumption by industries (Table 4.1). In 2021 Forests & Woodlands removed 320,881 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere (this is the net sequestration figure), and stored more than 322 million tonnes of carbon. The beneficiary of this Global climate regulation service is considered to be society in general, so all of the use of this service is allocated to Government final consumption in the Use table (Table 4.2). See Background Notes for more information on Supply and Use tables in ecosystem accounting. 

Table 4.1 Supply and Use table for the Wood provision ecosystem service1 supplied by Forests & Woodlands in 2022
    Supply Use
Ecosystem serviceVariableUnit Forests & Woodlands Intermediate consumption by industriesTotal use
Wood provisionNet annual increment in Forest Available for Wood Supply (FAWS)'000 m3 9,064 9,0649,064
1 Data source: National Forest Inventory
Table 4.2 Supply and Use table for the Global climate regulation ecosystem service1 supplied by Forests & Woodlands in 2021
     Supply Use
Ecosystem serviceVariable Unit Forests & Woodlands Government final consumptionTotal use
Global climate regulationNet carbon sequestration tonnes C 320,881 320,881320,881
 Carbon storage (closing stock) tonnes C 322,657,119 323,171,119323,171,119
 Carbon stored in Harvested Wood Products (HWPs) tonnes C 262,550 262,550262,550
1 Data sources: National Forest Inventory for data on carbon storage; National Inventory Report for data on carbon sequestration and HWPs. Carbon storage for 2021 calculated by subtracting net sequestration for 2021 from carbon storage for 2022 (see Table 4.4)

Wood Provision

The National Forest Inventory provides data on the net annual increment of timber in Ireland's Forests & Woodlands. Not all of these forests are used for wood supply, however. In the National Forest Inventory, forest area is categorised as Forest Available for Wood Supply (FAWS), or Forest Not Available for Wood Supply (FNAWS; split into Unlikely and Not available). These categories are defined as:

Available - Forest where any legal, economic, or specific environmental restrictions do not have a significant impact on the supply of wood. 

Unlikely - Forest where physical productivity or wood quality is too low or harvesting and transport costs are too high to warrant wood harvesting, apart from occasional cuttings for own use.

Not available - Forest with legal restrictions or restrictions resulting from other political decisions, which totally exclude or severely limit wood supply, inter alia for reasons of environmental or biological diversity conservation, e.g. protected forest and other protected areas, such as those of special environmental, scientific, historical, cultural or spiritual interest. Areas classified as National Parks and Nature Reserves are included in this class.

The mean net increment per hectare for all forests has increased every year since 2012, from 11.6m3/ha in 2012 to 14m3/ha in 2022. As the area of forests has also grown over time, the mean annual net increment has increased by 35%, from 7.391 million m3 to 9.984 million m3. The increment of FAWS has increased from 13.1m3/ha in 2012 to 17.1m3/ha in 2022, with the total annual net increment increasing from 6.992 million m3 in 2012 to 9.064 million m3 in 2022, an increase of almost 30%. Figure 4.1, Table 4.3.

X-axis labelNet annual increment
20126.992
20177.562
20229.064
Table 4.3 Net annual volume increment for Forests & Woodlands by availability for wood supply1
 Increment (m3/ha) Area of stocked forests ('000 ha) Volume ('000 m3)
YearAvailableUnlikelyNot availableAll stocked forests AvailableUnlikelyNot availableAll stocked forests AvailableUnlikelyNot availableAll stocked forests
201213.13.55.811.6 533.7399.813.59637.13 6,992349217,391
201714.73.87.312.1 514.44153.884.79673.11 7,562585358,145
202217.14.99.714.0 530.07178.294.79713.15 9,064874469,984
1 Data source: National Forest Inventory

Global Climate Regulation - Carbon Storage

The National Forest Inventory provides a detailed breakdown of how carbon is stored in various carbon pools in Forests & Woodlands. Carbon stored in the soil is by far the largest carbon pool, with 78% (252 million tonnes) of the total carbon stock of Forests & Woodlands in 2022. The Aboveground carbon pool, i.e. the carbon stored in the above ground portion of the living trees, is the next largest component, at more than 16% (52.574 million tonnes), followed by the Belowground pool, i.e. the carbon stored in the living tree roots, at 3.8% (12.259 million tonnes) in 2022. Altogether, the living trees stored around 20% (64.833 million tonnes) of the total carbon stored in Forests & Woodlands in 2022. The rest of the carbon is stored in the Deadwood and leaf litter. The total carbon stored in Forests & Woodlands in 2022 was 323 million tonnes, an increase of nearly 13% on 2012. Figure 4.2a, Figure 4.2b, Table 4.4.

X-axis labelAbovegroundBelowgroundDeadwoodLitterSoil
201240.3019.0231.9021.912232.741
201746.04910.4742.1742.133246.889
202252.57412.2592.4633.599252.083
Table 4.4 Carbon stock in Forests & Woodlands 2012-20221
 2012 2017 2022
 '000 tonnes% '000 tonnes% '000 tonnes%
Carbon poolCarbon stockPercent of total Carbon stockPercent of total Carbon stockPercent of total
Aboveground40,30114.1 46,04915.0 52,57416.3
Belowground9,0233.210,4743.4 12,2593.8
Deadwood1,9020.72,1740.7 2,4630.8
Litter1,9120.72,1330.7 3,5991.1
Soil232,74181.4246,88980.2 252,08378.0
All carbon pools285,961100307,898100 322,978100
1 Data source: National Forest Inventory

Global Climate Regulation - Carbon Sequestration

The EPA produces a National Inventory Report every year which details Ireland's emissions and removals of greenhouse gases. This report and the accompanying tables are a rich source of data on greenhouse gas emissions and removals for different types of land cover. Using these data, we have compiled figures for carbon removed from the atmosphere, carbon emitted due to burning, and carbon removed from the ecosystem as Harvested Wood Products (HWPs). 

The net carbon stock change in living biomass has decreased from 1.5 million tonnes in 2012 to 0.58 million tonnes in 2021. The carbon stock gains in living biomass have shown a small amount of variation over this time, going from 5.3 million tonnes in 2012 to 5.7 million tonnes in 2021. The carbon stock losses in living biomass have shown an increase almost every year, however, from -3.8 million tonnes in 2012 to -5.1 million tonnes in 2021. Figure 4.3, Table 4.5.

The carbon stock changes in the different components of the forest ecosystems are shown in Figure 4.4 and Table 4.7. The largest component is the living biomass, which has already been described above. The next largest component is the loss of carbon from organic soils. This loss has increased from 694,010 tonnes in 2012 to 732,305 tonnes in 2021, an increase of 5.5%. The carbon sequestered shows the sum of the stock changes. This has shown a decreasing trend, dropping from 1.04 million tonnes in 2012 to 326,847 tonnes in 2021. The amount of carbon emitted due to burning varies by year; the lowest amount in this period was 2,147 tonnes in 2016, while the highest was 112,889 tonnes in 2017.  The carbon emitted due to burning is subtracted from the carbon sequestered to provide the net carbon sequestered. The net carbon sequestered has been decreasing from a high of 1.21 million tonnes in 2016 to 320,881 tonnes in 2021.

Ireland's forest age class structure is unusual due to large legacy afforestation events in the 1950s and again in the 1980s due to the introduction of afforestation grants and schemes. The main drivers of the changes in net carbon sequestered are due to the area of forest on organic soils, increased harvest rates, and a shift in age class structure. An increase in timber removals (Table 4.6; see CSO's Forest Wood Removals 2021 for more information) has resulted in increased carbon stock losses from the living biomass, and a resulting decrease in the net change in carbon stock in the living biomass (Table 4.5). Around 59% of Forests & Woodlands occurred on drained organic soils in 2021 (National Inventory Report 2023). Young plantations on organic soils result in increased carbon stocks in the soil, but as these mature there is a net loss of carbon. 

Harvested Wood Products (HWPs) are wood-based materials harvested from forests, which are used to make products including furniture, construction materials, or for energy. They form a storage pool or stock of carbon that has been extracted from the ecosystem, but which has not yet been released back into the atmosphere. The carbon in HWPs was 262,550 tonnes in 2021, the highest over the 2012-2021 period. Table 4.8.

X-axis labelC stock net change in living biomass
20121528537
20131586168
20141408712
20151594719
20161638242
20171091311
20181097678
2019917882
20201049843
2021580073
Table 4.5 Carbon stock changes in living biomass in Forests & Woodlands 2012-2021
 tonnes C
YearC stock gains in living biomass C stock losses in living biomass C stock net change in living biomass
20125,328,812 -3,800,276 1,528,537
20135,421,919 -3,835,751 1,586,168
20145,532,415 -4,123,704 1,408,712
20155,618,378 -4,023,660 1,594,719
20165,810,815 -4,172,572 1,638,242
20175,842,196 -4,750,885 1,091,311
20185,882,548 -4,784,870 1,097,678
20195,901,670 -4,983,787 917,882
20205,896,059 -4,846,217 1,049,843
20215,710,870 -5,130,797 580,073
Table 4.6 Total timber removals from Forests & Woodlands 2015-2021
Year'000 tonnes'000 m3
20153,0003,312
20163,1323,445
20173,3583,698
20183,4823,834
20193,6474,007
20203,4633,914
20213,8254,333
X-axis labelC stock change in living biomassC stock change in deadwoodC stock change in litterC stock change in mineral soilsC stock change in organic soils
2012152853740673.2166007.3-989.7-694009.5
2013158616866955.7173275.2-2304.4-693964.4
20141408712102113.7228739.81258.1-698331.9
20151594719116485.5201614.6-820.7-705898.1
20161638242115993179794.4-4985.6-713062.9
20171091311235569.1302342.3-1968.8-721533.6
20181097678192601.5226400.3-3130-727296.3
2019917882210290242276.1-3709.9-732424
20201049843108702.2153497.5-5367.5-732374.1
2021580073192610291203.1-4734.4-732304.8
Table 4.7 Carbon stock changes in Forests & Woodlands 2012-2021
 Carbon stock change   tonnes C
YearIn living biomassIn deadwoodIn litterIn mineral soilsIn organic soils Carbon sequesteredCarbon emitted due to burningNet carbon sequestered
20121,528,53740,673166,007-990-694,010 1,040,218-2,5591,037,659
20131,586,16866,956173,275-2,304-693,964 1,130,130-22,4881,107,642
20141,408,712102,114228,7401,258-698,332 1,042,491-18,7771,023,714
20151,594,719116,486201,615-821-705,898 1,206,100-10,5431,195,557
20161,638,242115,993179,794-4,986-713,063 1,215,981-2,1471,213,834
20171,091,311235,569302,342-1,969-721,534 905,720-112,889792,831
20181,097,678192,602226,400-3,130-727,296 786,254-28,971757,283
2019917,882210,290242,276-3,710-732,424 634,315-3,350630,965
20201,049,843108,702153,498-5,368-732,374 574,301-17,693556,608
2021580,073192,610291,203-4,734-732,305 326,847-5,966320,881
Table 4.8 Carbon in Harvested Wood Products from Forests & Woodlands 2012-2021
 tonnes carbon
YearCarbon in Harvested Wood Products (HWP)1
2012182,340
2013180,630
2014208,140
2015198,750
2016219,190
2017236,950
2018225,180
2019236,270
2020220,640
2021262,550
1 Data from National Inventory Report