The Government has launched a new Woodland Improvement Scheme.

The scheme provides financial support to forest owners for sustainable forest management.

Launching the scheme, the Minister of State for Land Use and Biodiversity at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Senator Pippa Hackett, said: "Our forests bring big benefits for our climate, environment and nature. Through the Forestry Programme, this new scheme supports forest owners to deliver these benefits. The grants are generous. For instance, owners can benefit up to €1,200 per hectare to thin and tend their forest. I'm delighted that we can reward timber growers and forest owners in this way, and that we can enhance our existing woodlands through sustainable forest management practices. I encourage people to apply to the scheme to maximise the value of their forests."

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The scheme supports sustainable forest management that can bring environmental and climate benefits. It also protects biodiversity by supporting forest owners to transition from even-aged forest management to closer-to-nature forestry.

The Woodland Improvement Scheme has five different elements that owners can choose from. Those include: thinning and tending, agroforestry maintenance, continuous cover forestry, coppice and coppice with standards, and seed stand management.

Forest owners who applied for Thinning and Tending (Element 1) and CCF First Intervention (Element 3) under the previous Woodland Improvement Scheme, and who have not yet received approval, will have the opportunity to opt-in to the new scheme at the improved rates.

Likewise, those with existing approvals under these Elements, and who have not commenced work, will be offered the opportunity to opt-in to the new Scheme and avail of the new rates.