When Andrew Doyle, Minister of State with responsibility for forestry launched the midterm forestry review earlier this year, most of the interest was directed towards the afforestation, woodland improvement and roading measures. However, support measures also play an important role in delivering a viable forestry programme, especially the Knowledge Transfer Group (KTG) scheme.
The aim of the KTG measure is to increase the level of forest management activity among participating forest owners, and to increase their awareness of the value of their forests with particular emphasis on wood mobilisation.
The KTGs, which will be rolled out later this year are based on three successful pilot schemes carried out in Clare, Donegal and Limerick-Tipperary in 2017.
“The introduction of KTGs is a key strategy of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) to promote better forest management among private forest owners,” maintained a DAFM spokesperson as “forest owners will learn from the experts and from each others’ experiences within a discussion group setting”. She said KTGs would:
“While the KTG structure is geared towards participants learning from each other’s experiences, it is important that qualified foresters are present to add to the quality of information being exchanged,” said the DAFM spokesperson. “Experienced foresters who have practical knowledge in harvesting and selling timber on behalf of clients are therefore suitable candidates to fill the role of facilitators in KTGs.”
She maintained that the KTG pilot demonstrated that professional foresters acting as facilitators worked very well. In a national forestry KTG scheme, these foresters may themselves be employed by forestry companies or they may organise KTGs themselves.
Regarding a possible conflict of interest arising as a result of direct involvement by foresters and/or forestry companies as organisers, she said: “It is difficult to see a way in which the risk of a potential conflict of interest could be fully eliminated without removing the professional foresters from the KTG organisation structure altogether.”
When asked if the involvement by foresters should be at the behest of the producer groups only, as proposed by Michael Ryan (see panel), she said that the Department sees a role for both producer groups and foresters in organising KTGs but acknowledged that it “is important that all KTG organisers, whether they are producer groups, forestry companies or consultants, deliver the training content in an impartial manner”.
To ensure this outcome the following provisions are included in the KTG terms and conditions:
All agree on the importance of KTGs although there is some disagreement on who delivers the scheme. Michael Ryan former chair of the Limerick-Tipperary Producer Group and Paul Finnegan, forestry consultant outline their views.
The establishment of KTGs is a timely initiative and very much welcomed. Farmers with forests are very eager to learn and engage with foresters so they can learn how to manage their forests to maximise their benefits. It gives them a structure to engage with foresters and to give themselves the tools to make decisions about the management of their forests. The following are a number of relevant points based on my own experience of delivering a KTG:
Knowledge is power. If organisations and individuals are equipped with the required knowledge they will carry out their businesses more satisfactorily. Equally importantly, they cannot be so easily exploited by others who already possess these skills. Large-scale private afforestation since the 1990s wasn’t accompanied by a comprehensive training, skills and information programme so many farm forest owners have not learned how to manage their forest resource effectively. As a result, some have paid for services which they could have provided themselves. In a small number of cases, owners have been exploited by service providers.
This is changing and the formation of Forest Owner Groups, supported by Teagasc, has provided an important vehicle for information. Despite their voluntary nature, limited resources and lack of tangible support, these have brought a new degree of awareness of good forestry practice to thousands of their members across Ireland.
The KTGs take this a step further illustrated by the Limerick & Tipperary Woodland Owners Ltd (LTWO), which launched a pilot scheme in 2017, funded by the Forest Service (FS). This has been a resounding success with hundreds of forest owners taking part, benefitting from each others’ experience and the expertise of the forester employed by LTWO. A full scale scheme is now being announced, which plans to include forestry companies as organisers and facilitators. I believe that this is a serious retrograde step.
There is a clear conflict of interest in having any entity which is a provider of services to forest owners providing training to those same owners. The best scenario is that forestry farmers just like dairy or beef farmers, should manage their own businesses. I have no issue with forest owners using the services of forestry consultants or companies provided they are equipped with an independently acquired level of forestry and management skills and can therefore critically assess the services being offered.
The integrity of the KTG scheme is now in question, as it can no longer guarantee that the information imparted, will be independent and unbiased. There is a wide range of services that forestry companies can usefully provide but impartial knowledge transfer is not one of them.