South Dublin Branch News

EC slam forestry policy - Enda Leahy, The Sunday Times, 26 February 2006 Ireland's forestry programme has been condemned by European commission officials. The commission is threatening legal proceedings against the government for failing to comply with environmental directives. Last week a senior official in the commission's environmental directorate said a series of written warnings have been issued to the Irish government and that the next step will be legal action. The renewed exchange of letters has been sparked by a series of complaints to the commission by Irish landowners and environmental activists. Kathy Sinnott, an MEP, headed a delegation that briefed EU officials on the growing controversy last November.

"If you look across Europe the type of forestry you find in Ireland is virtually unknown," the senior commission official said. "The Irish forestry policy is probably the most controversial in the community." Problems identified by the commission include inadequate environmental impact assessments (EIA) of newly afforested lands, "industrial" style single species forestry plantations that harm biodiversity and inadequate protection of landscapes. One serious bone of contention between the commission and Ireland is the type of wood being planted. "The idea of using non-indigenous species to make up the bulk of the forestry estate is simply not a feature of other forestry policies," said the official. The Forest Service in the department of marine and natural resources has monitored plantations grown by the state-owned Coillte and private landowners. It found that almost 90% of Irish woodlands are fast-growing, non-native, conifer plantations, mostly sitka spruce, which produce poor quality wood used for pulp and for woodchips.

The Department of Agriculture admitted that warning letters had been received from the commission. A statement issued on behalf of the Forest Service said: "Forestry and biodiversity guidelines must be followed as part of all approvals for afforestation, and other grant-aided projects as well as for felling licences". "This includes the need to take the biodiversity values of a site into consideration before work commences."