Minister of State for Forestry Andrew Doyle TD today addressed the Council of the European Forest Institute in its meeting at Dublin Castle.

In welcoming the delegates from 16 Member States of the Institute, as well as Director Marc Palahi, and Chairman Professor Ted Farrell (University College Dublin), Minister Doyle referred to the association that his Department has had with EFI since its inception in 1993.  

Minister Doyle said “One of the focuses of the EFI’s work has been its close engagement and interaction with European policy decision-makers, stakeholders, policy institutions and EFI's member organisations. In this regard the EFI is moving forward the positive agenda around Europe’s forests and the contribution they make to society and the economy. It brings valuable science-based knowledge and information to the attention of stakeholders in a format which is readily usable in areas such as forests and climate change, forest biomass and carbon neutrality and other topical areas into the policy arena”.

In more recent years we have had a closer association with the EFIATLANTIC, and this has now led to the EFIATLANTIC Summer School on Forest Planning and Management, which will take place over a number of days in June at Waterford Institute of Technology. It will feature training in the state-of-the-art tools and techniques, many of them developed in Ireland over the past decade on foot of national and company-led research and innovation investments. It has attracted over 40 persons from 17 countries” added Minister Doyle.

The Minister pointed out the ambitious plans that Ireland has to increase forest area from the current figure of close on 11% to 18% by later this century on foot of the Department’s afforestation programme, which provides grant aid to encourage land owners to plant forests. He also referred to national investment in forest roads needed to mobilise the increasing supply of roundwood forecast to come on stream, with a forecasted doubling of harvest from 3.3 million cubic metres per annum to over 7 million cubic metres in 2035.

Note to editors

The European Forest Institute (http://www.efi.int/portal/) is an international organisation of which Ireland is one of 26 member states. It is headquartered in Joensuu in Finland with a number of Regional Offices at other European locations. EFI carries out research and provides policy support on issues related to forests. It facilitates and stimulates forest-related networking and promotes the dissemination of unbiased and policy-relevant information on forests and forestry. It also advocates for forest research and for the use of scientifically sound information as a basis for forest policies.

To view this Press Release as a PDF: DAFMPR 74/2017 (pdf 183Kb) 

Date Released: 26 April 2017