| CALL ON PARTIES TO RECONSIDER ECONOMIC WASTE OF CURRENT FORESTRY PLANTING |
| FIE has written to the party leaders asking them to reconsider Irish forestry planting. The letter points out that more than €10,000 a hectare is being given to farmers on the basis of a forestry policy that has no economic future. Current policy is still based on the 1996 ‘Planting For the Future’, which required planting rates to reach a ‘critical mass’ through a minimum planting rate of 20,000 hectares a year until 2035. When this policy was reviewed by Peter Bacon in 2004, the minimum planting rate to make the current policy viable was revised downwards to 12,000 hectares a year. The funding available for forestry in 2011 will only be sufficient for 7,000 hectares of new planting - and planting has only reached half of even the lowered 12,000 hectare minimum in the 6 years since the Bacon Report was published. READ THE LETTER | READ THE PRESS RELEASE
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 20/02/2011 ( Reads : 385 ) | Comments (0) | Forestry |
| Forestry party leaders appeal |
Dear Michael Martin;
We are greatly concerned about the lack of realistic thinking in your party’s forestry policy.
The current planting programme is operating in a void whereby the 1996 Planting For the Future, which was based on reaching a ‘critical mass’’, has failed entirely to reach its required minimum planting rate of 20,000 hectares a year.// Read More // |  |
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 20/02/2011 ( Reads : 761 ) | Comments (0) | Forestry |
| GRANTS 'FORCING FARMERS TO BURN' |
| New restrictions on the Single Payments Scheme to farmers are contributing to the wildfires that have devastated thousands of hectares of Ireland’s countryside, according to 19 Irish environmental groups. In a letter today to the Minister for Agriculture, we point out that as a result of a recent ‘Health Check’ of the Single Payments Scheme made to farmers there is now an economic incentive for farmers to burn scrub land. While hedgerows are protected, we point out that new rules require areas of scrub and even any part of hedgerows growing into fields to be removed or marked on the farmer’s application and excluded from payments. Only ‘utilisable areas’ are eligible for payment. The farmers have been warned that areal photography and satellite images will be used in the inspections required by the European Commission. We have asked the Minister to ensure the Forest Service and the Department of Agriculture Single Payments Unit work together to provide a scheme to promote the management of these scrub areas.
Letter to the Minister | Submission to the Forest Service | Press Release | Radio Debate with the IFA [20 mb] // Read More // |  |
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 30/04/2010 ( Reads : 531 ) | Comments (0) | Forestry |
| Wildfires: Forestry Scrub/Transitional Woodland Scheme |
Re: Forestry Schemes Review Farmers claim that Area Aid payments are dependent on keeping their lands accessible to livestock or the land will be excluded from support payment. They argue that they can not permit reversion of their holdings to scrub. Scrub is ‘often found in inaccessible locations or on abandoned or marginal farmland' . Scrub can contain many native species, e.g. hawthorn, blackthorn, gorse, juniper, bramble, roses, willows, small birches, stunted hazel, holly and oak. Scrub frequently develops as a precursor for woodland and its support offers the potential to allow for woodland regeneration on hillsides, riparian sites and bog margins . No fertilisation or drainage is required. Tourism, biodiversity, soils and water all benefit by reversion to scrub. To keep this land open farmers justify burning as a management tool required for economic reasons. // Read More // | |
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 30/04/2010 ( Reads : 1253 ) | Comments (0) | Forestry |
| Forestry planting 2009 |
| FIE's continued concerns about the planting of non-native species on our uplands and coastal uplands are undermined by COFORD (the Department of Agriculture's research section) arguments. These arguments continue to deny CORINE data showing twice the planting rate on peat soils that Ireland admits to - and by continuing to insist that planting on peat soils leads to net carbon sequestration for which Ireland can claim Kyoto credits. See our latest slide show | Read our letter to the Minister | Read the COFORD reply // Read More // |  |
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 07/02/2010 ( Reads : 761 ) | Comments (0) | Forestry |
| The Great Forestry Game |
| "Developed countries are trying every trick in the book to preserve business as usual greenhouse gas emissions. How can we expect developing countries to accurately account for emissions from land use change and deforestation if developed countries continue to shamelessly game the system?" Sean Cadman, the Wilderness Society // Read More // | |
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 12/01/2010 ( Reads : 654 ) | Comments (0) | Forestry |
| Millennium Tree Certificate Scam Revealed |
It is said that the truth will out in the end. Bertie Ahern's 2000 ‘tree for every household' promised as part of the Millennium Forest Project was a great con job, pushed by the Cabinet over the professional advisors. Read the original FIE summary. The scientific fact is that of the 1.2 million trees planted, only 5% will survive to maturity because of the thinning necessary in growing broadleaves. In order for the 1.2 million certificates to represent mature trees, more than 25 million would have had to be planted. Instead of woodland planting of 337 hectares, 6,000 hectares would have been required. Now, an audit into the project by the management committee set up to run it has revealed just this, attacking the public's 'confused' perception of what the whole project was about. It wasn't about single trees - as Ahern had said all those years ago - but actually about 'forests'. Read the recent Mail on Sunday expose | Read about the Woodland League's ‘Where's My Tree' Campaign // Read More // |  |
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 26/08/2009 ( Reads : 1053 ) | Comments (0) | Forestry |
| Millennium Tree Certificate Scam |
The Millennium Tree Certificates issued to every household in Ireland are a scam forced on the Millennium People's Forest project by the Millennium Committee for political spin.
Material released to Friends of the Irish Environment under the Freedom of Information Act from the Taoiseach's Department shows that the project as proposed by Coillte had no element of individual certificates for every household. The project was planned for the nation as a whole.
The Millennium Committee and Minister Breenan, however, insisted on the issuing of certificates as a condition of an additional £1 million in funding which Ray McSharry requested in September of 1999.// Read More // | |
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 26/08/2009 ( Reads : 1740 ) | Comments (0) | Forestry |
| Illegal felling Killarney Golf and Fishing Club |
FIE wrote to the Forest Service to ask why lime trees more than 100 feet from a building were felled without a licence. FIE also requested that mature trees which form an integral part of this 19th century historic landscape are given full protection. // Read More // |  |
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| Posted By Caroline Lewis on 02/03/2009 ( Reads : 984 ) | Comments (0) | Forestry |
| The Forest Network Newsletter is back |
Dubbed by Michael Viney in the Irish Times as 'generally hostile and unforgiving, but often revelatory', this FNN begins by revealing how Ireland is avoiding an SEA for forestry which could lay the groundwork for a sustainable national forestry policy. But the legal exemption from SEA in Irish law only applied while forestry was EU funded - which is no longer the case. Has the loophole become a noose? This issue also covers the Irish FSC [Forest Stewardship Council] certification debacle; the recent contractors' protest at the Irish Natural Forestry Foundation's Cork conference (which is also covered with links to the pod casts of the presentations); the legal status of Coillte; and how they misled Ireland's Minister by claiming the UK pesticides authority had approved the cocktail of insecticide and adhesive they now apply to the seedlings at their nurseries and export to the UK; - and an obituary for Crann, the self styled 'leading Irish tree organisation' which has been awarded €5000 from the plastic bag levy fund to help it 'merge' and 'rebrand' with another organisation. Read the archived html Newsletter | or click on // Read More // for the text only version. // Read More // |  |
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 13/11/2008 ( Reads : 1350 ) | Comments (0) | Forestry |
| FORESTRY PROTEST AT CORK CONFERENCE |
FIE is supporting a small group of forestry contractors who are protesting today outside a Cork Forestry Conference today. The protestors are calling for a halt to the ongoing felling on a plantation in the Ballyhoura Mountains in North Cork until proper protection is put in to stop the environmental damage. Extensive felling is taking oplace at a site within the Awbeg River catchment, a tributary of the Blackwater. The damage to the soil through rutting and erosion is in open defiance of the Forestry Guidelines. The area is designated for protection as a Natura 2000 site and is a breeding ground for otters and supports a significant population of Atlantic salmon. The river also supports a population of White-clawed Crayfish, a threatened species. FIE has issued a Press Release saying that ‘We don't need more forestry conferences and more experts - we need to stop the damage. Press Release | Photographs // Read More // |  |
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 04/11/2008 ( Reads : 1224 ) | Comments (0) | Forestry |
| COILLTE TEO'S LEGAL STATUS |
A summary of EU and Irish case law releating to the status of Coillte Teo. // Read More // | |
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 03/11/2008 ( Reads : 14201 ) | Comments (0) | Forestry |
| SUPPORT WITHDRAWN FROM FORESTRY CERTIFICATION SCHEME |
The Irish environmental NGO Friends of the Irish Environment [FIE] and the UK Friends of the Earth [FoE] have withdrawn their support for the forestry certification schemes run by the international Forestry Stewardship Council [FSC]. FIE and FoE UK say they ‘can not support a scheme which fails to guarantee high environmental and social standards.' Ireland's leading timber producer, Coillte Teo, was certified in 2001 by FSC International but FIE says the company's specific legal requirement under the 1989 Forestry Act to place economic considerations above environmental and social requirements mean that they can not meet basic environmental and social standards. A spokesman for FIE said ‘it is important that the public have confidence in green labels. It's the job of environmental organisations to speak out when they see them being abused'. FIE certification pages FoE UK certification pages // Read More // | |
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 24/09/2008 ( Reads : 1319 ) | Comments (0) | Forestry |
| Designations won't save Hen harrier |
The story of how the Hen harrier became the hostage to the ‘reckless populism of the IFA leadership’ with the areas to be designated reduced from 287,000 hectares to 169,000 hectares. At the demands of the IFA for the ‘constitutional right to achieve optimal returns on your asset’, a further 9,000 hectares of forestry are to be permitted even in the protected areas, though the population fell from 134 to 105 pairs 2000 – 2005 and the Parks and Wildlife Service itself admits that ‘the bottom line is that new planting represents a net loss of foraging habitat'.
In four astonishing maps from 1970 to today, track the loss of this bird and the entirely inadequate final areas proposed for protection under the Bird's Directive.
See FNN 177 on 'The vanishing Hen harrier' and the 'consolidation' of the proposed protection areas. See Our Press Release: 'Designations won't save Hen harrier' Listen to FIE on Midland's Radio looking at the background to the designations and the unsustainable national forestry policy that is now 'out of control'. Read our letter to the Minister and the Report in our library. And see also: Forestry and the fresh water pearl mussel. Irish planting of non-native species in the uplands is now before the European Courts because of the widespread irreversable damage to the Irish environment. // Read More // |  |
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 16/10/2007 ( Reads : 1733 ) | Comments (0) | Forestry |
| Mount Herbert Fellings - Resident's Background |
| The planning application concerned, at Mount Herbert (a protected structure), Bray, in the words of the ABP inspector, "proposes to remove existing planting to: (a) construct a new vehicular entrance onto Herbert Road; and (b) construct four no., three storey, four bedroom detached houses..." (Inspector's report, 2007). The development in question is on a site which has been the subject of repeated planning refusals, going back to 1986, on the basis that the applications would result in the destruction of trees worthy of protection and designated views and prospects. The most recent refusal was that of An Bord Pleanála (ABP) (PL39.222107) on 26th July 2007 which upheld and reinforced the refusal of BTC. // Read More // |  |
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 25/09/2007 ( Reads : 1875 ) | Comments (0) | Forestry |
| 12 JUNE 2007: FIE LODGES COMPLAINT OVER IRISH FORESTRY CERTIFICATION |
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| Posted By the editors on 12/06/2007 ( Reads : 1758 ) | Comments (0) | Forestry |
| Complaint to Forest Stewardship Council over the Irish Certification Initiative |
| Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) wish to initiate the dispute resolution procedure against the Irish Forestry Certification Initiative Ltd.(IFCI) . IFCI are the body accredited by FSC to develop a certification standard in the Republic of Ireland. There have been ongoing problems since the conception of IFCI in 1999. Despite many attempts to address these issues through participation on the IFCI Steering Committee and more recently through the IFCI grievance procedure no resolution ahs been forthcoming. Unfortunately correspondence from IFCI is unhelpful and often aggressive and there is a reluctance to provide IFCI members with even basic information including minutes of meetings. In addition there are serious concerns in relation to the development and format of the third draft standard // Read More // | |
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| Posted By the editors on 12/06/2007 ( Reads : 2878 ) | Comments (0) | Forestry |
| 8 JUNE 2007: COILLTE CERTIFICATION SUSPENSION CALL |
| FIE has asked the Forest Stewardship Council's Accreditation Services International to sanction FSC Auditors and suspend the certification of Coillte Teo.'s 345,644 hectares of plantation forestry on the basis of the major failings of the 2007 Audit of their forestry practices.
Three key issues were ruled outside their jurisdiction, favouring commercial considerations over environmental damage - ignoring the issue of carbon cycles when 84% of Irish forestry 1990 -2000 was on peat soils - and failing to meet the national broadleaf target of 30%.
The audit reveals, but takes no measures to end, the practice of determining the percentage of broadleaves planted by the number of stems rather than the standard practice of area planted (resulting in a false comparison with conifers), the felling of trees marked for retention during clearfelling in spite of observing the practice. Deteriorating water quality and lack of buffer zones were ignored in spite of the current EU proceedings against Ireland under the Habitats Directive.
The Audit was conducted by the Soil's Associations Woodmark. Coillte was granted a 5 year continuance of its certification in May 2007 as a result.
Read ISSUE 167 of the Forest Network Letter that reveals this in detail.
And the letter to the Forest Stewardship Council's Accreditation Services International seeking suspension of the Certification certificate.
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| Posted By the editors on 08/06/2007 ( Reads : 1752 ) | Comments (0) | Forestry |
| Woodmark Public Certification Report [SA-FM/COC-0706]. |
| Huberto Bonafos
Accreditation Services International
Forest Stewardship Council
3 June 2007
h.bonafos@accreditation-services.com
accreditation@fsc.org
Re: Woodmark Public Certification Report [SA-FM/COC-0706].
Dear Mr. Bonafos;
We understand that FSC's Accreditation Services International is in the process of producing its report on the recent annual inspection by Woodmark of Coillte Teo., the Irish State Forestry Board. // Read More // | |
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| Posted By the editors on 06/06/2007 ( Reads : 2667 ) | Comments (0) | Forestry |
| 27 APRIL 2007: COILLTE €8M EU CLAWBACK TO BE REVIEWED |
| The Minister of the Agriculture and Food has asked Coillte Teo., the State Forestry Board, for a 'Strategic Review of their Activities' to assist in determining who will pay back €8.3 million in forestry premiums which were disallowed by the EU.
FIE challenged the premiums through the European Court of Auditors in 1998 as the funding was intended to replace income lost by farmers through tree planting. The company had been using the premiums to fund bank loans to purchase more land from farmers.
FIE last week issued a solicitor's letter to Coillte threatening legal action unless Coillte reverses its decision to refuse to release information on the cost-benefit analysis of their forestry activities.
'Coillte's profits have been buoyed by substantial land sales. Much of its timber can no longer be economically harvested yet it is still being harvested and replanted under the same system and with the same non-native species. Pursuing non-sustianable forestry is not even making them money', FIE claims.
PRESS RELEASE
NEARFM podcast: Local Point: Eamonn O' Flanagáin, a retired internal auditor from the Forest Service, gives an extensive interview to Michael FitzGerald for Northside Today on 'how Coillte Teo are defying an EU ruling by refusing to pay back €8m (more than €10.5m including interest & charges) to the Government for illegal subsidies granted to farmers to encourage tree planting.'
Listen to the extensive interview! // Read More // | |
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| Posted By the editors on 26/04/2007 ( Reads : 1660 ) | Comments (0) | Forestry |
