Coillte has an ongoing major programme of planting new forests. This planting programme comprises afforestation, which is the planting of bare land, which may previously have been used for agriculture, and restocking which involves the reforestation of areas where a crop of timber has previously been harvested.

 

While the overall size of Coillte's planting programme has remained at around 10,000 - 11,000 hectares over the past 5 years, the balance has shifted from afforestation to reforestation during this period. This is because forestry-type land has become more expensive and less of it has been coming onto the market for forestry. Also, as the volume of timber harvested in Coillte's forests increases, more Coillte-owned land is becoming available for restocking. This enables Coillte to continue to make a major contribution to the national planting programme even as its afforestation activity declines.

 

 

	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Afforestation of Coillte land (ha)	231	181	189	66	178
Farm Partnership (ha)	98	62	30	51	151
Restocking (ha)	6,694	6,996	6,006	4,452	4,777
Planting for Farmers (ha)	1,404	896	567	877	840