To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs for his assessment of the merits of utilising hedgerow management for carbon sequestration.

Research has identified that hedgerows act as a carbon store and continue to sequester carbon under appropriate management systems. The amount of carbon stored and accumulated in hedgerows varies considerably and will depend on species composition, management, age, location/soil type etc. Also, accurately quantifying carbon stocks in biomass like hedgerows is complex and uncertainties remain.

A number of best practice management techniques can help increase carbon sequestration in hedgerows. Hedges trimmed to the same level repeatedly, lose stems and eventually become gappy, so avoiding annual trimming is preferable. Where there is no ‘health and safety’, ‘sightline’ or ‘right to light’ issues then changing to rotational cutting (i.e. move from annual trimming to 3 year trimming) and the use of incremental trimming (where the hedge is cut 10cm out from the last cut) helps allow an increase in hedgerow biomass.

Increasing the total amount of hedgerows in our landscape by planting new hedges and restoring poor hedges will also enhance carbon sequestration. Encouraging tree growth within hedgerows and inter-planting trees helps boost sequestration and provides an opportunity to increase the number of farm trees without taking up more land.

It is important to avoid removing existing hedgerows unless absolutely necessary. Even if a replacement is planted it will take time before it has the carbon store of a mature hedge. The removal of Landscape Features including hedgerows is not permitted without prior consent from DAERA.

Avoiding damage to the hedgerow from spray drift by keeping an appropriate unsprayed strip and not ploughing within 2 metres to protest the root system are also recommended management practices.

My department encourages and supports farmers to protect and enhance hedgerows in a number of ways. After four tranches of the current Environmental Farming Scheme (EFS) support has been provided for the planting of approximately 550km of new hedgerows, 420km of tree enhanced boundaries and the restoring of 56km of hedges by ‘laying’.

CAFRE farms demonstrate current best practice hedgerow management techniques to farmers and students. CAFRE also provide advice on hedgerow management for carbon sequestration to Environmental Business Development Group and Technology Demonstration Farm members, through EFS training videos and Newsletter and Press articles.

In addition, the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) is working on a DAERA/DAFM funded project looking at ash dieback and management strategies. Ash dieback is a fungal disease causing significant effects on ash trees which are a common species in NI’s hedgerows.