MOUNTAINEERING IRELAND says it is determined to secure a Government commitment to retain national forestry company Coillte in State ownership.
As the national governing body for mountaineering and hillwalkers it says it will “oppose in a most determined manner . . . any sale of the Coillte estate that impacts negatively on access and the recreational benefits Irish people have enjoyed over many years”.
In a statement issued yesterday it said it believed Coillte could play a “significant role in the recovery of the Irish economy”, and welcomed the company’s return to profit in 2010.
Coillte has made no comment on reports about its future following a recommendation in the McCarthy report two years ago that such State assets could be sold to generate revenue.
The Woodland League was among non-governmental organisations which highlighted concern about Coillte’s future early this year when Coillte put out a tender in January to value its assets – encompassing 7 per cent of the Republic’s land area.
However, Coillte has said the valuation was “unrelated to any speculation about the future ownership of Coillte”.
It said it had been “considering the public goods or non-market benefits that our forests deliver to Ireland for some years” and “began work with an examination of the value of forest recreation and its contribution to rural tourism in 2005”.
“We now wish to examine the value of forests in the landscape, and also that of biodiversity and heritage,” Coillte said.
“The European Commission is increasingly calling for the TEEB – total ecosystem economic benefits – to be evaluated and used in decision-making processes,” it says, adding that it sees the project as “just part of the new understanding behind the management of large areas of lands and ecosystems”.
The new programme for government aims to merge Coillte with Bord na Móna to create a company called BioEnergy Ireland.
Mountaineering Ireland says it neither opposes nor supports the proposed merger, and has called for more details on the “core purpose and vision” of BioEnergy Ireland. “If the merger is to proceed, Mountaineering Ireland calls for a Government commitment that BioEnergy Ireland will be retained in public ownership, and that Coillte’s current open-access policy on its estate will be maintained over the long term.”
Mountaineering Ireland has over 10,300 members, comprising more than 150 clubs. It estimates that it reaches an audience of more than 300,000 active hillwalkers, climbers and mountaineers.
It is recognised as the national governing body for mountaineering by the Irish Sports Council and Sport Northern Ireland.