Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Coillte has got rid of Coillte Nature, its not-for-profit climate division. We are told it is being absorbed into the wider organisation. We are told that the need for a separate nature team has been superseded by the overall Coillte strategic vision, which was published in 2022. Yet, that strategic vision - that very document - spotlighted Coillte Nature as delivering nature projects at scale. Only last year, Coillte Nature signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Parks and Wildlife Service on restoring biodiversity on Coillte lands, so how is it that a division of Coillte that was central to delivering nature-based solutions up to one year ago is suddenly dispensable? Is the Government comfortable with the decision to quietly delete Coillte Nature, a decision that was taken while the new Government was actually forming? Will the Government, as shareholders of Coillte, demand that the organisation reconsider its abandonment of its nature obligations?

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