Timber has always been vital to the life of man as a source of shelter, energy and transportation. Coillte has some of the most productive forests in Europe, which enables us to provide an increasing supply of timber on a sustainable basis.

Coillte's policy is to harvest the optimum, sustainable yield of timber from its forests having regard to the protection of other forest values and to the requirements of its customers. Forest management is a complex business and a wide range of factors must be taken into account in arriving at decisions about which forests should be harvested, when and by what method. Coillte uses sophisticated forest management models to predict growth rates and forecast the volume of timber, which will be contained in the forest in the future. The principal requirement in regard to the sustainability of the timber resource is to ensure that, on average, the volume of timber harvested in any one year does not exceed the amount by which the volume of timber in the forest increases in one year. Having calculated what the total allowable cut should be the further challenge then is to identify those forests which have reached their optimum production potential, assess and mitigate the environmental impact of harvesting them, establish that there is a market for the timber to be harvested and that the price currently available in the market provides a return which will cover the cost of growing and harvesting the timber. Only then can the decision to proceed with harvesting be taken. All forest harvesting requires a felling licence from the Forest Service of the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources.

The focus is on optimising rather than maximising production. A focus on optimisation enables us to ensure that all of the other factors are taken into account when arriving at timber production decisions and that timber production policy takes account not only of economic but also social and environmental considerations.

How to contact us:

For further information on Coillte's Timber Production policy, please contact:

Email: Timber Sales