Greens question decision of Coillte to disband Coillte Nature
The Green Party has questioned the decision of Coillte to disband Coillte Nature, its not for profit nature restoration unit.
In both Dáil and Seanad this week, Green Party Leader Roderic O’Gorman TD and Senator Malcolm Noonan raised concerns about the impacts on staff, stakeholders and the implications of how Coillte intends to deliver its biodiversity obligations with no dedicated unit to lead on such work.
‘It is confusing that in response to questions posed by Senator Noonan and myself, that Coillte could maintain that this decision was in line with their Strategic Vision 2022 document. Coillte Nature is specifically referenced in the strategy as having a central role in nature restoration for the company. Now it is gone, and it is uncertain as to how the company will meet its biodiversity targets under the Nature Restoration Plan, and what will happen to existing projects such as the Dublin Mountains Makeover Project. The new government appears to have been caught unaware of the decision’ said Deputy O’Gorman.
Raising the matter in the Seanad, Senator Malcolm Noonan said that the response provided by the department raised more questions than it gave answers. ‘The Minister for Agriculture is a shareholder of Coillte. Was he aware of this decision? What will happen to the staff? How will Coillte subsume it’s Coillte Nature work into Coillte Forests? All of these questions remain unanswered’ he said.
‘Coillte’s Forest division has an important commercial function for the company; providing much needed lumbar and materials for the construction sector. How will it integrate nature conservation and restoration into its commercial operations when its sole focus is to sow, grow and harvest a commercial crop not to restore nature? We simply don’t know,’ said Senator Noonan.
Has Coillte learned anything from how it handled the Gresham House deal? To allow it’s dedicated not for profit nature restoration division to just disappear quietly into the night is of concern to us and to everyone concerned about restoring nature. Minister Heydon and Minster Healy Rae must seek answers from Coillte to the issues that we have raised here today and demand that Coillte outline how exactly it plans to embed nature restoration and conservation into it’s forest division and if this will require a new strategy statement in light of this change in direction’ concluded Deputy O Gorman.
