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Europe. Forests. Ireland. · 25 October 08 by Ray Crowley

Trees are beautiful.

If we ignore the state of Malta, then Ireland is the least forested county in the European Union (wooded areas as percentage of total land).

Ireland is almost four times less wooded than the EU average.

Why is this?

“The English Cut them down” is the automatic response, but The Republic of Ireland has been independent since the 20s.

So, why have we chosen to not grow tress here? Odd.

Even the densely populated Netherlands has devoted more land use to the cultivation of trees the the “Emerald Isle”

Here is the Eurostat Press Release

State

Forest & woods as % of total land area

Finland

77

Sweden

75

Slovenia

65

Spain

57

Estonia

56

Greece

51

Latvia

51

Austria

48

EU27

42

Cyprus

42

Portugal

42

Slovakia

40

Italy

37

Lithuania

35

Bulgaria

34

Czech Republic

34

Luxembourg

34

Germany

32

France

31

Poland

30

Romania

29

Belgium

23

Hungary

22

Denmark

15

United Kingdom

12

Netherlands

11

Ireland

10

Malta

1