Afforestation with carbon sequestration and land use policy in Northern Ireland

Abstract

In forestry Northern Ireland is one of the most impoverished parts of the European Union as well as the United Kingdom. During the last 10-15 years as afforestation projects gathered speed in many parts of the British Isles there has been no notable change in Ulster. One main contributor to this problem was the political uncertainty and violence which has now largely been remedied since the establishment of the devolved government in 2007. In addition to the recently established political stability there is an equally welcoming factor which is likely to impact positively upon the fortune of forestry sector in the province, that is carbon trading rights under the Kyoto Protocol. The use of new forests as credit towards reducing carbon dioxide emission is an important part of the Kyoto deal and quantities of sequestrated carbon can now be used to offset against emissions elsewhere and in this way they become real benefits like timber values. Therefore, the amount of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere by way of afforestation projects should be assessed in economic evaluation of forestry investment proposals. The main purpose of this paper is to carry out a cost-benefit analysis for an afforestation project in Northern Ireland with a view to finding out what difference carbon sequestration will make to the economic rate of return. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. © 2010 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.