Coillte, the State forestry company, today published its third stand-alone Social and Environmental Report, which reports progress towards its social and environmental goals, and reaffirms the company's commitment to continuously improving how it manages its forests for the benefit of shareholders, customers, and stakeholders. The social and environmental information presented in the report complements the company's annual report and accounts published in May.

In the report Coillte states that reporting on its social and environmental performance is a key element of its Responsible Forest Management Strategy. The company fully recognises the value and importance of providing structured and meaningful information to enable its shareholders and other stakeholders to assess both Coillte's commercial performance and economic, environmental and social impact. Coillte publicly committed itself to the principle of Responsible Forest Management Strategy in 1998, and in May 2001, received the Forest Stewardship Council's (FSC) certificate for good forest management, which acknowledges that the company's forests are managed according to strict social, environmental and economic criteria. Coillte continues to retain this internationally-recognised certificate.

Progress in key social and environmental areas during 2002 is outlined in the report, including Coillte's comprehensive consultation strategy, which engages stakeholders in a systematic way through its 13 Social and Environmental Panels, its Stakeholder Field Days to Coillte's forests, and consultation on high impact operations. The report shows how Coillte is continuously improving recreational facilities, how the diversity of tree species in forests is being increased and how chemical usage is being reduced in Coillte's forests.

A report on Coillte's Nature Conservation programme shows how the company is setting aside 15% of its estate with nature conservation as the primary management objective, how it is actively restoring over 1,000 hectares of blanket bog habitat, and how it plans to restore native woodlands.

Almost one-half of this year's report is dedicated to demonstrating the holistic approach that Coillte is taking to managing its forests. This has been achieved by reporting on the social, economic and environmental aspects of Coillte's operations in 10 distinct geographic units, known as Forest Management Units (FMUs). Together, these 10 FMUs account for approximately one-third of Coillte's forests.

For more information Contact:
Máirín Delaney, Coillte: (01) 6635279 or (086) 2529609

• Forest certification is the process of inspecting particular forests or woodlands to see if they are being managed according to an agreed set of standards
• The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international non-profit organisation founded in 1993 to support environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's forests. To date, greater than 29 million hectares of forest have been certified around the world by FSC.
• The FSC's international labelling scheme for forest products provides a credible guarantee that the product comes from well-managed forests. All forest products carrying the FSC logo have been independently certified as coming from forests that meet the internationally recognised FSC Principles and Criteria of Forest Stewardship. The FSC process has the support of major international and national environmental organisations.