Forestry Act 2014

• Enactment Date: 26 October 2014
• Act Number: 31

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Number 31 of 2014

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FORESTRY ACT 2014

REVISED

Updated to 29 June 2022

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This Revised Act is an administrative consolidation of the Forestry Act 2014. It is prepared by the Law Reform Commission in accordance with its function under the Law Reform Commission Act 1975 (3/1975) to keep the law under review and to undertake revision and consolidation of statute law.

All Acts up to and including the Consumer Credit (Amendment) Act 2022 (13/2022), enacted 29 June 2022, and all statutory instruments up to and including the Forestry (Amendment) Regulations 2022 (S.I. No. 319 of 2022), made 29 June 2022, were considered in the preparation of this Revised Act.

Disclaimer: While every care has been taken in the preparation of this Revised Act, the Law Reform Commission can assume no responsibility for and give no guarantees, undertakings or warranties concerning the accuracy, completeness or up to date nature of the information provided and does not accept any liability whatsoever arising from any errors or omissions. Please notify any errors, omissions and comments by email to

revisedacts@lawreform.ie.

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Number 31 of 2014

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FORESTRY ACT 2014

REVISED

Updated to 29 June 2022

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Introduction

This Revised Act presents the text of the Act as it has been amended since enactment, and preserves the format in which it was passed.

Related legislation

Forestry Acts 1988 to 2020: this Act is one of a group of Acts included in this collective citation (Forestry (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020 (15/2020), s. 7(2)(b)). The Acts in the group are:

• Forestry Act 1988 (26/1988)

• Forestry (Amendment) Act 2009 (40/2009)

• Forestry Act 2014 (31/2014)

• Forestry (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020 (15/2020), s. 5

Annotations

This Revised Act is annotated and includes textual and non-textual amendments, statutory instruments made pursuant to the Act and previous affecting provisions.

An explanation of how to read annotations is available at

www.lawreform.ie/annotations.

Material not updated in this revision

Where other legislation is amended by this Act, those amendments may have been superseded by other amendments in other legislation, or the amended legislation may have been repealed or revoked. This information is not represented in this revision but will be reflected in a revision of the amended legislation if one is available.

Where legislation or a fragment of legislation is referred to in annotations, changes to this legislation or fragment may not be reflected in this revision but will be reflected in a revision of the legislation referred to if one is available.

A list of legislative changes to any Act, and to statutory instruments from 1972, may be found linked from the page of the Act or statutory instrument at

www.irishstatutebook.ie.

Acts which affect or previously affected this revision

• Animal Health and Welfare and Forestry (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2022 (4/2022)

• Forestry (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020 (15/2020)

• Minerals Development Act 2017 (23/2017)

• Horse Racing Ireland Act 2016 (2/2016)

All Acts up to and including Consumer Credit (Amendment) Act 2022 (13/2022), enacted 29 June 2022, were considered in the preparation of this revision.

Statutory instruments which affect or previously affected this revision

• Forestry (Amendment) Regulations 2022 (S.I. No. 319 of 2022)

• Forestry (Licence Application and Submission Fees) Regulations 2020 (S.I. No. 417 of 2020)

• Forestry (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2020 (S.I. No. 416 of 2020)

• Forestry (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2020 (S.I. No. 39 of 2020)

• Forestry (Amendment) Regulations 2020 (S.I. No. 31 of 2020)

• Forestry (Amendment) Regulations 2017 (S.I. No. 498 of 2017)

• Forestry Regulations 2017 (S.I. No. 191 of 2017)

• Forestry Act 2014 (Commencement) Order 2017 (S.I. No. 189 of 2017)

• Climate Action and Environment (Transfer of Departmental Administration and Ministerial Functions) Order 2016 (S.I. No. 393 of 2016)

All statutory instruments up to and including Forestry (Amendment) Regulations 2022 (S.I. No. 319 of 2022), made 29 June 2022, were considered in the preparation of this revision.

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Number 31 of 2014

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FORESTRY ACT 2014

REVISED

Updated to 29 June 2022

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Acts Referred to

Agriculture Appeals Act 2001 (No. 29)

Companies Acts

Electronic Commerce Act 2000 (No. 27)

Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2011 (No. 20)

European Communities Act 1972 (No. 27)

European Communities Act 2007 (No. 18)

Forestry (Amendment) Act 2009 (No. 40)

Forestry Act 1946 (No. 13)

Forestry Act 1988 (No. 26)

Freedom of Information Act 1997 (No. 13)

Local Government (Sanitary Services) Acts 1878 to 2001

Local Government Act 2001 (No. 37)

Local Government Acts 1925 to 2012

Local Government Reform Act 2014 (No. 1)

National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1987 (No. 17)

National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1994 (No. 17)

National Monuments Acts 1930 to 1994

Planning and Development Act 2000 (No. 30)

Planning and Development Acts 2000 to 2013

Registration of Deeds and Title Act 2006 (No. 12)

Wildlife Act 1976 (No. 39)

Wildlife Acts 1976 to 2000

Wildlife Acts 1976 to 2012

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Number 31 of 2014

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FORESTRY ACT 2014

REVISED

Updated to 29 June 2022

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An Act to make further and better provision in relation to forestry, to provide for the development and promotion of forestry in a manner that maximises the economic, environmental and social value of forests within the principles of sustainable forest management, to confer power on the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to make regulations for the effective management of the forestry sector, to make further provision for the giving effect to acts of the institutions of the European Union by regulation made by that Minister in respect of forestry and forestry-related activities, to repeal the Forestry Act 1946, to amend the Wildlife Act 1976, to amend the Agriculture Appeals Act 2001, to amend the Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2011 and to provide for related matters. [26 th October, 2014]

Be it enacted by the Oireachtas as follows:

PART 1

Preliminary and General

1.

Short title, collective citation, construction and commencement

1. (1) This Act may be cited as the Forestry Act 2014.

(2) The Forestry Act 1988, the Forestry (Amendment) Act 2009 and this Act may be cited as the Forestry Acts 1988 to 2014 and shall be construed together as one Act.

(3) This Act shall come into operation on such day or days as the Minister may appoint by order or orders either generally or with reference to any particular purpose or provision and different days may be so appointed for different purposes or different provisions.

Annotations

Editorial Notes:

E1

Power pursuant to subs. (3) exercised (24.05.2017) by Forestry Act 2014 (Commencement) Order 2017 (S.I. No. 189 of 2017).

2. The 24th day of May, 2017, is appointed as the day on which the Forestry Act 2014 (No. 31 of 2014) shall come into operation.

2.

Interpretation

2. In this Act—

“Act of 1946” means the Forestry Act 1946;

“Act of 2000” means the Planning and Development Act 2000;

“afforestation” means the conversion of land to a forest;

“authorised officer” means a person authorised under this Act to be an authorised officer for the purposes of the relevant statutory provisions;

“carbon sequestration” means the process through which forestry practices remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it in vegetation and soil;

“coppice” means a forest crop raised from shoots produced from the cut stumps of the previous crop;

“deforestation” means the conversion of a forest into land that is not a forest;

“environmental impact assessment” has the meaning assigned to it by the Forest Consent Regulations;

“environmental impact statement” means an environmental impact statement (EIS) within the meaning of the Forest Consent Regulations;

“exempted tree” means a tree exempted under section 19;

“fell” means cut through the trunk of the tree to such an extent that the tree falls or is rendered liable to fall;

“fixed payment notice” means a notice given under section 24;

“forest” means land under trees with—

(a) a minimum area of 0.1 hectare, and

(b) tree crown cover of more than 20 per cent of the total area, or the potential to achieve this cover at maturity,

and includes all species of trees;

“Forest Consent Regulations” means the European Communities (Forest Consent and Assessment) Regulations 2010 (S.I. No. 558 of 2010), as amended by the European Communities (Forest Consent and Assessment) (Amendment) Regulations 2012 (S.I. No. 442 of 2012);

“forest reproductive material” means reproductive material of tree species and artificial hybrids that are important for forestry purposes;

“forest road” means a road (other than a public road) that serves a forest;

F1[“forest road works” means the construction of a forest road or works ancillary to such construction (whether or not such construction involves the removal of trees);]

“grant” means any payment made by the Minister for forestry-related activities, other than a loan;

“Habitats Regulations” means the European Communities (Birds and Natural Habitats) Regulations 2011 (S.I. No. 477 of 2011);

“Minister” means the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine;

“natural regeneration” means the generation of trees from natural seed fall;

“owner”, in relation to trees or a forest, means—

(a) the freehold owner,

(b) the leasehold owner (if any), or

(c) the occupier for the time being,

of the lands concerned and includes Coillte Teoranta;

“planning authority” has the meaning assigned to it by section 2 of the Act of 2000;

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