On the eve of National Tree Week, the environmental organisation, Crann, has appealed to the Government not to abandon its native woodlands and neighbourwood planting schemes.
Financial cutbacks imposed on the Forest Service have put the future of both schemes in jeopardy just over a year after they were initiated by the Department of Marine and Natural Resources. The Minister, Mr Ahern, told the Dáil on Thursday that both schemes would continue for this year, but with a reduced budget. No details of the cut were available from the Department yesterday.
Ms Jan Alexander, founder and president of Crann, said that both schemes had involved years of preparation and any decision to abandon them would be a retrograde step.
Mr John Brosnan, of the Tree Council of Ireland, said yesterday that both schemes had been very successful, largely due to the support of the Forest Service. The neighbourwood scheme involves local authorities, non-governmental organisations and the community. Eightprojects are up and running, with 50 more due to be developed.
Some local authority projects, such as Terryland Forest Park in Galway, include a neighbourwood element, while others, such as Hollywood Park in Co Monaghan and Mote Park in Co Roscommon, are more dependent on the scheme. Mote Park is an important habitat for red squirrel and was approved last year for €190,000 in funding under neighbourwood grant-aid.
Ms Eilish Feeley, chairwoman of Mote Park Conservation Group,said that Coillte had intended to fell much of the woodland at Mote Park until the community had approached it with a plan for sustainable management. The neighbourwood scheme had released funding to allow this to go ahead. "We know of many other community groups around the country who now fear for these projects, and any setback will jeopardise the partnerships that have been set up to restore our wooded areas."
Woodlands of Ireland has also expressed fears about the native woodlands scheme run by the Forest Service. The risk to jobs and expertise, if the scheme was axed, would result in a "potentially irreversible" loss of confidence in the partnership between the commercial and environmental sector, said Dr Declan Little, the project manager of Woodlands.
The native woodlands scheme grew out of the people's millennium forests project, which involves restoring and establishing 16 semi-natural woodlands. The scheme was first proposed by Woodlands of Ireland, an umbrella group of organisations concerned with native woodlands and co-funded by the Heritage Council, the Forest Service and Dúchas, the Heritage Service.
Ireland has one of the lowest areas of native woodland in Europe, at not more than 1.5 per cent of total land area.The woodlands scheme aimed to reverse the trend by providing grant-aid to both the public and private sector to conserve existing native wooded areas and plant new ones. It also aimed to meet the State's commitments under the EU Habitats Directive and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
Dr Little said that nurseries had been gearing up for the scheme. Jobs would go if it was abandoned. Suspension would set the industry back, making it "extremely difficult" to further develop and implement forestry policy on biodiversity and broadleaves.
National Tree Week begins tomorrow, with events countrywide, and this year some 15,000 trees sponsored by Coillte will be distributed to community groups and schools by local authorities. The programme includes forest walks, tree-planting ceremonies, workshops, talks, competitions and even tree plantathons on the theme: "clean air - grow your share".
The slogan reflects the concern about global warming, which is caused by the build-up of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Trees absorb CO2 and use it to make cellulose. Irish emissions of CO2 are expected to exceed 1990 levels by 32 per cent in 2010, according to the Tree Council of Ireland. Planting more trees is one way of offsetting this projected rise, it says.
Details of National Tree Week events can be found on the website www.treecouncil.ie