The future of the Irish forestry sector and its role in combatting climate change and the biodiversity crisis are among the topics up for discussion at the National Ploughing Championships in Tullamore next week.

The private forestry representative group Social Economic Environmental Forestry Association (SEEFA) has assembled a team of heavy-weight panelists to tease out the big issues facing the industry.

The discussions will kick off on Tuesday at 11am when a panel, which includes Minister for State Michael Healy-Rae, debates the path forward for forestry.

ADVERTISEMENT

Also included in this panel are Professor Cathal O’Donoghue of University of Galway, Conor Daly from the Forestry Company and Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) forestry chair Padraig Stapleton.

The afternoon debate on Tuesday will be centred around the topic ‘Forests and the climate crisis’.

The four-member panel for this discussion will comprise UCD’s Cara Augustenborg, who is assistant professor in environmental policy and a member of the Climate Change Advisory Council.

She will be joined by Green Belt’s Hugo McCormick, economist Professor John Fitzgerald and Trinity College’s Yvonne Buckley.

Biodiversity

On Wednesday morning, founder of the 100 Million Trees Project Richard Mulcahy will be joined by Hometree’s Ray Ó Foghlú, John Kavanagh of None-So-Hardy and John Case of Teagasc to discuss the topic ‘Planting for biodiversity: protecting Ireland’s heritage’.

Meanwhile, storm Éowyn will take centre stage on Wednesday afternoon (2.30pm). Donal Whelan of the Irish Timber Growers Association will be joined by Gavin Adkins of Euroforst Holdings, Paddy Bruton of Forest Services, Padraig Egan of SWS Forestry and the IFA’s Padraig Stapleton to assess the fall-out from the storm.

Thursday morning’s panel discussion will assess the merits of agroforestry and will feature organic farmer Clive Bright, Colm Gilheaney of Western Forestry Co-op, Department of Agriculture forestry inspector Eugene Curran and Maureen Kilgore of the Irish Agroforestry Forum.

The panels will be moderated by two gurus of the hurling and political fields, Michael Duignan and Ivan Yates.

SEEFA is on Stand 133, (Row 5, Block 5).