Biodiversity in Irish Forests

Ireland’s forests and woodlands are important habitat for many native species of flora and fauna in a landscape that is increasingly under pressure from intensive agriculture and urban development. The protection and enhancement of biodiversity in our forests has become an important  objective in the practice of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM). Today some 15% of all forests are required to have biodiversity as a main management objective and measures to create greater diversity in our forests are being implemented. Measures such as the  increased planting of native broadleaved tree species, restructuring forests to provide more open space, deadwood habitat, native woodland in riparian zones etc. will transform many of the plantation forests established in past decades where commercial timber production was the sole priority.