The provision of jobs could be the most important rural development aspect of forestry in remote areas, a Coillte official claimed at a conference in Co Clare this week.
Mr Tim Crowley, southern region manager of Coillte, the State forestry board, said farmers had been priced out of being able to consolidate their holdings because of a doubling in forestry land prices between 1984 and 1991. This had come about after the introduction of EU-funded forestry grants in 1982, when the rate of afforestation, especially in the private sector, increased dramatically.
However Mr Crowley claimed the provision of extra jobs could be regarded as "the most important rural development role of forestry in remote areas ". In a 1996 study, the economic activity generated from Coillte forests in Ballyvourney, Co Cork, supported the equivalent of 119 full-time jobs.
The claim has been rejected by a resident of Rockchapel village in the Slieve Luachra area of north Cork. Mr Jack Roche, who did not attend the conference, said his community and environment had been decimated by commercial forestry which had failed to provide any economic regeneration in the area.
The community is lobbying the European Commission because of the lack of jobs created from forestry and the drop in population from 1,200 to 700 over 25 years.
The East Clare Development Association organised the conference, entitled How can Forestry Development Enhance the Life of Local Communities.
Clare has 12 per cent of its area planted, most of which is concentrated in the eastern part of the county where the proportion of land under trees rises to 17 per cent. A chipboard factory has been in existence at the town of Scarriff for more than 40 years.
Nationally, the State has 8.3 per cent of its land mass afforested with Sitka spruce being the dominant species. Coillte controls more than two-thirds of the State's commercial forests.
Mr Crowley said forestry had been perceived as "a sinister depopulating agent, moving across the countryside removing homesteads in its wake ".
He said the area around Ballyvourney was one "where forestry has been the focus for considerable negative publicity because of rural depopulation".
The study area comprised 17,728 hectares of Coillte-owned forests along the border of counties Kerry and Cork. The analysis showed that £2.68 million was spent in direct economic activity in 1996 and the equivalent of 119 jobs was created, mostly in wood-processing. Mr Crowley said 75 per cent of the jobs were created within a 20-mile radius.
However, the community of Rockchapel on the borders of Cork, Kerry and Limerick had the opposite experience, according to Mr Roche. He said there was a tragic inverse relationship between the number of trees planted, mostly Sitka spruce, and the numbers of people living in the area.
"Forty-seven per cent of the parish is a forestry, nearly 11,500 acres. There is no environmental impact study. There was never any kind of baseline study. As the forestry grew, the population dropped accordingly over the past 25 years."
The Slieve Luachra area, famous for its music, was also known for its grouse shooting and the flora and fauna associated with high bogland areas.
Mr Roche believes there is not a single grouse left while drainage works have increased water flows, destroying spawning grounds in streams and rivers and contributing to flooding problems. After harvesting, the area looks like a battlefield, he said.
"Our dispute is with the Government because the people planting the trees are getting grants from the Government. Is there a saturation point? What we are looking for is a change of policy. What we have is farmers with small, uneconomic holdings.
"They cannot increase their holdings because of the competitive price being paid for forestry land by developers and investors. The small farmer in Slieve Luachra cannot compete with forestry investors."
Father Harry Bohan, director of the Co Clare-based Rural Resource Development and one of the speakers at the conference, proposed that a forestry development centre be established in east Clare.
With many landowners relying on consultants and contractors to carry out the work, he said there was a huge need for education and training in the area.
"The centre would not only provide training in the business of forestry but would also give the knowledge necessary to manage forests under today's strict planning and environmental guidelines."
A forestry centre in Clare could also serve the nearby counties of Limerick, Kerry, Galway, Tipperary and Offaly. Between them, they were responsible for almost 40 per cent of national private forestry planting, he said.