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Note the large area on the bottom right hand side (South East) marked as "trees to be retained" (mostly spruce conifer trees).

Northern Ireland shocking low forest coverage

Northern Ireland is the least densely populated region in Europe in terms of woodland (which is below the UK average of 13%), with only 8.7% of its land mass.  

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The term forest is used to describe land predominately covered in trees (defined as land under stands of trees with a canopy cover of at least 20%). See UK Forestry Standard (UK Forestry Standard | Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (daera-ni.gov.uk)). 

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NI Forestry Service has confirmed that this forest is included in the NI Woodland Register and Basemap dataset. See the site highlighted within the ‘Map of forest and woodland cover in Northern Ireland 2020’ PDF (available at http://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/publications/woodland-register).

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46% of Northern Ireland forest and woodland cover is conifer, most of the remainder are either broadleaved - a category which includes native woodland and short rotation coppice (33%) or mixed conifer and broadleaved woodland (12%). The category of unknown (4%) can be assumed to be either broadleaved or mixed. The remaining area is comprised of regenerating forest and open ground in Forest Service forests.

Overall, it is acknowledged that the woodland cover in Northern Ireland is lower than in other UK countries, the south of Ireland and is the worst in Europe.

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