Plan to plant many more trees is good for Northern Ireland

Some 18 million trees will be planted over the coming decade, the environment minister has said.

Edwin Poots, in making the announcement in Stormont yesterday, pointed out that forest cover in NI is 8% of the land mass, well below the UK average of 13%.

And he could have added that even the UK is well behind other countries such as Germany.

This planting scheme is excellent news.

Northern Ireland will get 900 hectares of new woodland per year.

We have beautiful countryside, albeit somewhat bare in places and somewhat over developed with single dwellings in others.

New woodland will add to the visual mix in rural areas, and the variety of our landscape.

Not only that, it will help to mitigate climate change, absorbing carbon dioxide.

One of the benefits of living in the Province is that it has a much lower population density than England. This is beneficial in all sorts of ways, from lower levels of air pollution to lower levels of traffic congestion to larger amounts of space per person in which to live.

We do not, however, have the environmental protections such as that provided by agencies in England and Wales and in the Republic of Ireland.

Some politicians in Stormont have been unenthusiastic about such laws, and indeed unenthusiastic about a range of environmental matters (such as the introduction of national parks or stricter rural planning laws).

Some of the most sceptical representatives on such issues have been members of the DUP.

It is welcome therefore to see a minister from that party announcing this sensible ‘green’ initiative.