New Forest Owners Co-op for private land
Formation of the group began in 2006 with the assistance of Teagasc, in response to a desire by forest owners to maximise the benefits from their properties. Forest Owners Co-op chairman, Tim McCarthy, said there are 340,000 hectares of privately-owned forest in Ireland.
But, with 16,000 owners, small plantation sizes, and wide dispersal, they do not offer the desired economies of scale for forest operations such as timber-harvesting.
Timber from private lots comes to the market in an ad-hoc way, giving the timber industry little incentive to invest in the harvesting infrastructure required to make these plantations economically viable. Since the co-op was formed, most members’ forests have been visited, and individual forest-assessment reports are being prepared. These will be consolidated into one management plan. This will enable harvesting, and other operations, to be scheduled in advance, and will open the way to a group chain-of-custody scheme and forest certification, which are important in the timber industry, but are not accessible to most forest owners on their own. The co-op is also in discussion with insurers, who are keen to offer more competitive insurance to members.
Last year, Forest Owners Co-op members decided that the best way of meeting the needs of members was to form a co-operative society with the assistance of ICOS, the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society. This makes the co-op a legal entity that can engage with other industry players, and allows members to have a real input into the operation and direction of the group.
Membership is open to people who own forests that are of any age or size. Tim McCarthy, and the other co-op directors, have said they are keen to increase the organisation to a level where it can be a force in the forest industry, and support its own directly employed staff.
There is an open invitation to all private forest owners to attend the launch, in the Castle Hotel in Macroom on Friday, May 9, at 8pm. The launch will be attended by the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture with responsibility for forestry, Tom Hayes.
