Mr. Donal Magner:

My name is Donal Magner. I am secretary of the Wood Marketing Federation, forestry correspondent with the Irish Farmers' Journal and author of a number of publications, including Stopping by Woods: a Guide to the Forests and Woodlands of Ireland.

I will begin with a brief background on the Society of Irish Foresters. The society was founded in 1942 to advance and spread the knowledge of forestry in all its aspects. It represents the forestry profession in Ireland, North and South. Members of the society since its foundation have planned, managed and maintained State and private forest estate which is worth approximately €2.2 billion annually. The society also places a strong emphasis on forestry education and the promotion of forestry standards in Ireland. Since its foundation in 1942, the society has influenced a great deal of what has happened in Irish forestry policy, both State and private.

The society has consulted widely during the preparation of this document. It has discussed it with the sector, trade unions and a wide range of stakeholders. Our findings take account of social, environmental and economic implications of the sale of Coillte's harvesting rights.

I will give a brief background on Irish forestry. Forest cover had reduced to approximately 1% at the turn of the last century. On average 95% of all afforestation was carried out by the State from 1904 to the mid-1980s. This was totally reversed during the late 1980s due a great deal to changing EU agriculture policy and incentives for farmers to plant. Today, approximately 100% of planting is carried out by the private sector, who are mainly farmers.

Total forest cover in Ireland now is 760,000 hectares, approximately 11% of the total land area. Some 50% of forests or 6% of the land area of Ireland is in public ownership, mainly owned by Coillte. Because of the young age class of private forests, 83% of wood sourced by Coillte and by other industries is from Coillte-owned forests in Ireland.

I will give a brief background on how we got into this private forestry mix. Private forestry is, first, a partnership between farmers in the main and the State to create a viable forest sector. The farmer provides the land and the commitment to manage the estate while the State provides grants and annual premium payments until the forest achieves productivity. Public forestry also has a commercial mandate but it undertakes a much broader remit which looks at areas such as non-wood aspects of forestry, including recreation.

The Government continues to support farm forestry in Ireland. The table in the presentation provides a rough idea of what there is in Ireland at present. In 2012, the State has more forests than the private sector, but by 2020, based on current planting rates, the private owners will own approximately 18,000 hectares more than the public sector.

The society strongly supports the economic, environmental and social function that public forestry provides in Ireland. This is also known as multi-purpose forestry. Coillte is required by the 1988 Forestry Act to carry on forestry with due consideration to the environment.

Coillte forests provide continuity of timber supply and sustainable forest management, including FSC certification, which is an internationally recognised environmental accreditation which has benefits, not only for Coillte but for the saw-milling and timber processing sector. There are few industries as interdependent as forestry, from nursery production to forest establishment to road construction to timber harvesting and processing to manufacturing.

On its non-wood function, the society supports the continuation of Coillte's open forest policy which provides open access to forests for all our people and for visitors to this island. This is an acknowledgment that public forestry was funded by the Exchequer through the Irish taxpayers since the foundation of the State.

The society believes that the proposal to privatise the harvesting rights of publicly owned forests has a potential to disrupt the sustainable development of forestry and the forest-produced sector in Ireland. A major change in the ownership or management of publicly owned forests will alter the way these are managed, especially in relation to sustainable forest management and their ultimate benefits, not only to the State but also to society. The purchasers of the harvesting rights will be unable to pay the full value of the non-wood benefits, especially recreation. Alternative arrangements to continue to provide these benefits are likely to cost the State much more than current practice. Instead of the Exchequer being a beneficiary in the long term, this could cost the State much more. The society believes that the proposal to sell the harvesting rights has not been rationally assessed as to its impact on the sector and on non-wood or public good aspects of forestry.

I will speak briefly about the accountability of forest owners. Both forest service organisations in Ireland, North and South, ensure the range of standards and guidelines on the economic, environmental and social functions of forestry are fully adhered to and enforced. The society endorses these because they are compatible with good silvicultural practice, which is the proper management and maintenance of forests.

We have listed 11 of these that apply to all forest owners, whether they be forest owners in the future, State or private.

These include having in place sustainable forest management structures in Ireland for all owners to provide continuity in management, including the restocking of all forests and the continuation of adequate auditing and certification through management and ownership change; due care for the environment and existing forests during harvesting and other operations; protecting our forests against disease and infestation; and promoting and implementing continued safe and high-quality access to forests by the public and the maintenance of an open forest policy. In this regard, Coillte maintains 24,000 km of roads. Also included are maintaining native and amenity non-commercial forest areas; maintaining areas reserved for forest research; employing qualified forestry professionals at all stages of forest management; the principle of sustained yield to manage the continuity of wood supply to existing industries to ensure a balance between felling and growth to conserve carbon stocks; providing for periodic inventories of forest stock which is vital for timber processing to allow planning for the future; regulatory requirements with appropriate sanctions applied to all forest owners; and consideration that the income from harvest sale or part thereof should be reinvested in the forest industry, such as its non-wood contribution.

The society believes these safeguards cannot be guaranteed to stakeholders if the harvesting rights of Coillte public forests are sold in Ireland. The effect of privatisation on public forests would reduce the area of public forest ownership to less than 2% of the land area of Ireland compared with 16% in Europe. The proposed privatisation would virtually eliminate the public forest estate and, by extension, Coillte as meaningful entities, leaving Ireland unlike any state in Europe or the developed world.

I will speak briefly about the forest industry and the economy. I know the Irish Timber Council came before the committee last week so I will not dwell too long on it. The saw-milling sector, along with the panel board industry, exports up to 80% of its produce at present, compared with 17% during the Celtic tiger. Saw-millers have stated that privatisation could decimate this growing export-led industry and destroy its employment potential in rural Ireland. Irish sawmills have invested heavily in new technology to gain export market share. Irish processors are the most competitive and innovative in Europe. The Bacon report showed prices of standing timber paid by potential buyers would have to be double what is achieved at present. Already Irish timber processors pay between 30% and 100% more for standing timber than their counterparts in the UK. This increase for the Irish saw-milling sector would be completely unsustainable. Two major comprehensive reports contend that the privatisation proposal has no economic benefits.

Fears about public access to our forests are well founded. These have been expressed throughout the year by NGOs, political parties, the trade union movement and other bodies and, more recently and more vocally, in Avondale, County Wicklow. Access is one of the reasons European countries ensure almost half of their forests, which amounts to 16% of the land area, are in public ownership. It is also why the British Government abandoned its plan to privatise the Forestry Commission woodlands. The society, as an all-Ireland body, welcomes the recent change in legislation in Northern Ireland on public access which strengthens the previous policy of permissive access. Stakeholders now enjoy a legal right of access to all forests owned by the Northern Ireland Forest Service.

Our managed forest history is young, as the State has had less than 100 years of continuous management, while the private sector, mainly farmers, has had only 30 years. This compares with centuries of sustained management in countries such as France and Germany. This is an opportune time for us to assess the future of forestry in Ireland by way of an independent panel or other structure to include the examination of Coillte as a forestry company, and its enterprises in areas such as timber processing, wind energy and property development along with its wood and non-wood contribution to the State and society.

The forestry sector needs stability and continuity to maximise its performance, which is a well-balanced private-State forestry mix. The privatisation proposal could undo all of the work carried out in restoring our lost forest resource since 1904. It is the society's considered view that privatisation of the State forest resource has major long-term environmental, economic and social risks which far outweigh even the more optimistic short-term gains. Therefore, we oppose the proposal to sell off the harvesting rights of Coillte forests.