Galway County Council has approved plans by Coillte to carry out an environmental restoration project in Conamara.
Coillte said the Derryclare peatland restoration project forms part of a wider initiative, which aims to restore over 2,000 hectares of blanket bog and wet heath along the western seaboard.
It applied for permission to fell and remove over 340 hectares of existing plantations, in order to allow for the restoration of peatland and to undertake a replanting programme.
The lands in question are at Doire an Chláir and Cúil na Ceártan in Co Galway.
The restoration project will involve the removal of pine and conifer trees, the blocking of drains and the control of invasive species on the site.
It is planned to rewet some 281 hectares of blanket bog, with the remaining portion of land to be replanted with native tree species.
An earlier application was refused by the local authority last year and a new submission was made by the company last December.
Coillte said the project will have a "wide array of environmental benefits", including enhanced carbon sequestration, rare habitat protection and flood risk management.
In its submission to the council, it argued the initiative would reverse damage caused by previous forestry practices and was in keeping with the National Biodiversity Action Plan.
The company said without intervention the site would continue to experience peat degradation and that a "crucial opportunity to restore vital environmental functions" on the area would be lost.
Planners have attached seven conditions to the permission, including stipulations that the project be overseen by an on-site peatland ecologist and that adequate soakaways are constructed, in order to ensure there is no impact on existing land or road drainage.
Coillte has welcomed today's decision and said work will now begin on incorporating the conditions into the wider restoration plan.
