Growing the Irish Forest Bioeconomy

COFORD is the Irish forestry research and development organisation. This year Gerard Murphy of Coillte, and member of the EUSTAFOR Executive Committee, led a COFORD working group which developed and published a report entitled “Growing the Irish Forest Bioeconomy”.

The working group was comprised of representatives from public and private forestry, timber processing, academia and government.

The gross output of the Irish forest sector is set to double by 2035 and the report provides an exciting vision of a thriving, export led, forest bioeconomy which creates sustainable jobs in rural Ireland and supports national land use carbon reduction and climate adaption objectives.

The report presents 12 proposals for growing a vibrant forest bioeconomy in Ireland and these have been fed into a National Bioeconomy Strategy which is currently in preparation.