The Green Party has welcomed the Cabinet decision that it will not proceed with the sale of Coillte harvesting rights. However, the proposed merger between Coillte and Bord na Mona to make a bio-energy company could lock our forestry into a outdated, clear-felling forest model.

The Green Party's forestry spokesperson, Cathy Fitzgerald, commented: "While we welcome the news that Ireland's Public forests will not be sold, we must also envision the forests we want for this country. To see our public forests chipped and burned solely as an energy crop is the wrong way to go.

"It appears that no critical review of Coillte's long term objectives other than producing forests as an energy crop will be examined. We could end up using our forests to feed wood material into peat power plants rather than creating a whole, new, sustainable forestry industry.

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"The Green Party asks the Government to move beyond short-term profits and recognise the potential value and environmental necessity of new continuous-cover forestry to improve economic returns, provide more environmentally diverse and resilient forests and improve forest amenity benefits over the long term. To develop Irish Forests we must follow other leading European forest nations and move away from outdated, costly and environmentally deficient, clear-fell plantation management systems.

"The Green Party strongly urges the Government to take this opportunity to move toward continuous cover, non clear-fell forestry as based on leading European forest model. This is the key point in the Green Party's new policy, developed over the last three years and launched last month by Jan Alexander, Crann founder and former Chair of ProSilva Ireland. "Continuous-cover forestry would develop the living capital of our forests for long term improved financial returns, improve critical biodiversity values and the social amenity of our forests."

(CD/JP)