Reform Forest Policy in Ireland

We the undersigned ..

..object to Coillte Teoranta's certification to a substandard that is far inferior to the FSC principles and criteria.

..have no confidence in the Irish Forestry Certification Initiative and its support for the continuation of Coillte's massive exotic coniferisation of Ireland, for Coillte's continued use of pesticides, and for Coillte's continued sale of land for the development of landfills, and wind-farms, amongst other developments.

..want a reform of forest policy, and want to attempt to revert to the more environmentally, socially, spiritually and ultimately economically beneficial forestry of the past.

Regards,
The undersigned


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"The leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations."
- The Bible

Ireland is a forest country, and was for many thousands of years. The conditions are near perfect for the growth of trees. The most authentic Irish landscape is diverse native broadleaf woodland, with all it's attendant biodiversity (woodland flowers, herbs, wildlife, insects, etc.). Theodore Woolsey said, in his book Impressions of French Forestry, "next to agriculture, the business of forestry with its related industries is the chief source of prosperity in purely land states".

The economy of Ireland under the Gaelic Order was that of the forests. This great resource was the provider of raw materials, medicine, weapons, tools, charcoal, food (in the form of berries, nuts, fungi, fruit, wild animals, etc.) as well as the basis for spirituality and wisdom. No other country has as many placenames connected to the forest. As many as 40,000 still exist, however hopelessly out of context because of deforestation or foreign exotic plantations nearby.

There are also many family names associated with native broadleaf trees (McIvor is Sons of Yew, McCarthy is Sons of Rowan, McColl is Sons of Hazel amongst many others). The original Gaelic Alphabet for the old Irish language came from the native trees of Ireland.

These are just some good reasons to reconnect Irish people to their true roots, to help learn about nature, history, biodiversity, ecotourism, woodland crafts, etc.

In the last few centuries, there has been a massive deforestation of Irish land. What has been replaced, has been by and large replaced with foreign exotic near-monoculture conifer plantations. Coillte currently plant over 90\% near-monoculture foreign exotic conifers. These plantations...

..have contributed to pollution of water due to acidification, siltation and contamination by phosphate fertilisers.

..kill native flora due to the enormous decrease in light reaching the ground.

..create a higher risk of insect infestation and disease (e.g. pine weevil outbreaks, which were previously unknown in Ireland, have now taken place).

..require a higher rate of pesticide usage than native broadleaf forests, due to their susceptibility to insect infestation and disease. This leads to all the pollution and health problems associated with the dangerous chemicals that are pesticides.

..are highly susceptible to fire due to the resin content of non-native species. This risk is increased on peatland.

..contribute to physical damage due to drainage, planting, road-making and felling.

..contribute to depopulation and decline of rural villages. Ireland's current type of forestry uses highly mechanised processes, and leads to minimal labour input.

..destroys native bio-diversity. There is a growing awareness that native bio-diversity - be it native Irish oak woodland or a tropical rainforest - is crucial to our continued existence on this planet.

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WHY THE WOODLAND LEAGUE OBJECT TO THE F.S.C. CERTIFICATION OF COILLTE:

"If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen."
- Henry David Thoreau

Coillte's past and present standards of operation are far below the international FSC standards for sustainable plantations and natural forests. Certification of Coillte may jeopardise the reputation and integrity of the FSC Ecolabel in Ireland and abroad. It may also undermine our efforts to encourage Irish consumers to demand FSC certified local wood products and FSC certified hardwood imports. We need to be in a position to convince and guarantee consumers that FSC does represent true sustainability - economically, socially and environmentally. If Coillte is certified at current standards, changing consumer patterns will become an onerous task.

There has been no commitment by Coillte for a holistic review of company policy with regard to broadening their primary mandate, which is economic return. Coillte continues to have a policy of clearfelling and a policy of minimum broadleaf planting on public land and on farms in the Coillte Farm Partnership Scheme.

Coillte incorrectly claimed that they were a private enterprise so that they could retain EU grants that the EU courts ruled that they must return (A public body is not entitled to EU funding). The clawback of EU grants draws into question Coillte's economic strategy and the availability of additional monies that will be needed to achieve and maintain FSC forest standards. Coillte also misused taxpayers money in prolonging the weak legal arguments in the EU courts.

Coillte continues to act in a manner similar to private companies despite a consultants report to the Minister stating that privatisation was contra-indicated. Coillte appears to have an unofficial policy of creeping privatisation. The sale and long-term leasing of publicly owned forests without local or national public consultation continues to increase. Coillte has failed to address communities concerns and has failed to implement measures to demonstrate transparency and accountability in all transactions. Our forests continue to be ear-marked for the development of private recreational facilities, high cost luxury tourist and residential accommodation, land-fill sites, power stations, wind-farms, phone-masts, commercial and industrial sites, etc. Local communities are not consulted in advance regarding proposed change of ownership and use. Communities, fearful that their local forest may be privatised without notice, must constantly monitor planning applications to ensure that their forests remain in public ownership for long-term public use. Some communities that have been effected by Coillte's developments include Monivea, Dartry Wood, Derrybrien, Balrath, Monivea, Murroe, Camolin, Bottlehill, Portumna, Sites in Cork and Waterford, Dunstown Wood, Lough Eske, Balrath, Borlin Valley, Sliabh Luachra, Shipool, Motepark, Glending and others.

Coillte continues to pay lipservice to the process of public consultation at local level. The strategies to engage communities in the public consultation process for new forest management unit (FMU) plans have been inadequate. Notifications of meetings are sometimes sent at very short notice and efforts to inform interested parties are inadequate. For example, due to Coillte's poor publicity efforts for a public meeting in Co. Wexford, there was an extremely low attendance - approximately 20 people with the majority being Coillte employees. Recently in Murroe, Co. Limerick, Coillte refused to attend a public meeting of the community. Where community boards have been established, Coillte has retained the power to select the community's representative(s) from the community nominations. Communities are being forced to engage in a process where procedures are flawed from the beginning.

Coillte's management of the Woodlands of Ireland Millennium Woodlands Project has failed to include and fund environmental groups and their membership as equal working partners in this publicly funded project. The programme has also been criticised for promotional and technical weaknesses. For example, the boundaries of the proposed landfill site in Camolin Wood, Co. Wexford, overlaps with the Camolin Millennium Woodland.

Coillte's planting of over 90\% near-monoculture foreign exotic species, along with the problems listed above, is in breach of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, the Helsinki Agreement on Forestry, the Rio Agreement on Biodiversity, the Ministerial Conferences on the Protection of Forests in Europe at Strasbourg and Lisbon.. The Helsinki Conference definition for sustainable forest management is "The stewardship and use of forest and forest land in a way, and at a rate, that maintains their biodiversity, productivity, regeneration capacity, vitality and their potential to fulfil, now and in the future, relevant ecological, economical and social functions, at local, national and global levels and that does not cause damage to other ecosystems." This is not a description of Coillte forestry. The next worst achiever in the EU in this regard is France, who plant 48\% foreign exotics. The EU average is 27\% conifer planting.

There are many other social, environmental and heritage issues with Coillte that the Woodland League are aware of, including farm animals being impounded by Coillte; Turbury, Fishing and Sporting Rights being ignored; Flooding (e.g. at Burncourt); landfill sites being placed in Coillte land (or in land that was taken by Coillte from communities); effects on water quality; effects of acid sensitive soils; workers not being told what chemicals they are using; inadequate firebelts; pesticide usage; inadequate fencing around the forestry, Phosphate pollution in many rivers and lakes in Clare, Galway and Mayo; flooding; water quality; soil erosion (e.g. at Moycullen, Derrybrien); pesticides usage; siltation of rivers (e.g. at Loobagh river); blocked streams; eutrophication in many lakes (e.g. Lough Corrib); lack of biodiversity in forestry (i.e. monoculture foreign exotic planting), ring forts, burial grounds and many other heritage sites being destroyed by Coillte's methods of planting, and their sale of land for development.

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WHY THE WOODLAND LEAGUE OBJECT TO THE I.F.C.I. STANDARDS

When the last river is poisoned,
when the last tree is gone,
when the last fish has gone,
then we might realize,
we cannot eat money!
- Chief Seattle (Native American Chief, 1850s)

In 2002, Coillte Teoranta obtained Forest Stewardship Council certification from the Soil Association/Woodmark (they were formerly certified by SGS). The standard used by Woodmark was developed by the Irish Forestry Certification Initiative (FSC National Initiative for Ireland).

The IFCI was formed in 1999 (and incorporated as a company in 2000). FSC Principle and Criteria allow for three chambers in a National Initiative (the Economic, Social and Environmental). However, in the formation of IFCI in 1999, a fourth chamber was added. This was the "Woodland Owners/Small Growers" chamber, and was essentially a second Economic Chamber, giving economic interests an unbalanced 50\% of the voting power in IFCI. The fourth chamber was added despite grave concerns being expressed by several members of the Steering Committee of IFCI.

Since it's formation, Coillte Teoranta infiltrated every level of IFCI. They have had employees, former employees or people looking to become employed by Coillte on the Social, Economic and Woodland Owners Chambers, and in the Steering Committee, Technical Working Group and as Directors of IFCI. Initially, they even tried to get an employee onto the Environmental Chamber, but fortunately for everybody, this was prevented.

Under the IFCI standard (used by the Soil Association/Woodmark) Coillte are allowed to plant using methods outlined above, and still achieve FSC certification.

Under the current IFCI draft standard, Coillte are allowed to use pesticides on their forestry, unhindered, and without having to address the main cause of the need for pesticides. People Against Pesticides (a Social NGO opposed to the use of pesticides) were involved in the IFCI process from the beginning. PaP would not agree to pesticide usage in the IFCI standard unless Coillte increased their planting of native trees to 50\%, and thus began to address the need for pesticides (the timescale for this was negotiable). In 2003 there was an illegal attempt to remove PaP's representative, which resulted in PaP going unrepresented for several months. In this period, several principles were agreed, not least those concerning pesticide usage. In 2004, PaP's representative was removed fully.

This weak draft standard from IFCI bypasses local community rights to participate in local planning issues as is their right under Agenda 21, from which FSC principles were drawn, and allows Coillte to sell their land for development as outlined above. The following quote is from a book by Eoin Neeson - A History of Irish Forestry
"In the early 1970s the State forests were opened to the public on the basis that to the public they belonged; conservation and environment became important words. A plan to awaken public consciousness of forests in this context culminated in the European Conservation programme of 1970, conducted by the Forest and Wildlife Service. A natural development was to regularize the position in respect of the abundant forest-associated wildlife, resulting in the Wildlife Act of 1976."
Coillte has ignored this.

A few examples of what Coillte are allowed do with FSC certification using the IFCI standard:

Monivea Wood is currently under threat of development with a quango posing as a community co-operative with which Coillte are proposing to sell to them. 95\% of local people oppose this. Lady Kathleen Ffrench left the land to the people of Monivea and the nation in 1946. She stated the 400 acres of beech woodland would be left until the trees rot in the ground. By the 1950s the trees were cut down by the land commission/forestry board and replaced with a conifer plantation, which is now ready for clear felling, hence the sale. Coillte never consulted the real community. Coillte can and do ignore FSC criteria to engage and consult indigenous communities at all times.

In order to obtain FSC certification, Coillte needed some PR to show their environmental intentions and social (community involvement and consultation) provisions. They set up the Neighbour Wood Scheme with Forest Service (funding currently being withdrawn). The Woodlands of Ireland, The Peoples Millennium Forests, all of these run with their own people at the helm (including the Irish Forestry Certification Initiative). Camolin Forest, in Wexford, was an ancient Irish woodland (Sessile Oak, with a Holly under-storey) (ancient being over 400 years, in terms of forestry). This wood was clear felled to make way for the Peoples Millennium Forest. Camolin was a vital resource for a seed bank to help restore over degraded bio-diversity, but that is now lost.

The fact is that Coillte have never shown any willingness to adhere to FSC principles, with the exception of petty PR exercises. The IFCI has given Coillte FSC certification to a sub-standard (a standard that is far inferior to the FSC principles).

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In the spirit espoused by the late Dr. Ann Behan, without whom the Woodland League would never have existed, we ask you to sign the petition.

For more information contact:

Ciarбn Hughes,
Secretary, The Woodland League,
Caherawoneen,
Kinvara,
Co. Galway.
Ireland.
[email protected]
or visit:
www.woodlandleague.org
[at the time of creation of this petition, the internet site was under construction]