merrion street

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine, Andrew Doyle, announced a new scheme to establish Knowledge Transfer Groups (KTGs) for forestry. The scheme comes on foot of a successful pilot scheme run last year for these groups.

Minister Doyle said that

Knowledge transfer groups are well established in other sectors and I am very pleased to be announcing them for the forestry sector now. They’re a proven method of sharing best practice amongst participants in a sector and empowering them to maximise the value of their holding. They have a clearly defined role for the forestry sector now and by filling this knowledge gap a potential barrier to the mobilisation of timber and biomass can be removed.

These KTGS are aimed at private forest owners that require additional knowledge to help them undertake appropriate management activities in their forests. Discussions will be facilitated by a professional forester and will incorporate both classroom style learning as well as practical elements. KTGs will also encourage these forest owners engage with forestry groups and forestry professionals. KTGs will provide the mechanism for gaining this expertise and empower them to manage their own forests over its rotation. Under the scheme Forestry groups, forestry companies and forestry consultants can apply to organise KTGs.

According to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marines recent publication “Forest Statistics – Ireland 2017”, nearly 21,994 unique private forest owners have received grant aid to establish forests since 1980. The average size of these forests is just 8.8 hectares. The Minister stated that

working with these private forest owners to allow them to maximise the value of their forest is a priority for my Department. Consolidation of a widely dispersed private forest estate into larger management units will be part of this strategy. This also helps to maximise the value for the sector as a whole and increase downstream benefits and boost the rural economy. Cooperation with other forest owners will be key to this and I look forward to seeing these groups develop over time.

Editor Notes
KTG participation
Each KTG can have a maximum of 20 participants and each participant will need to attend 7 meetings or outdoor events in order to complete the programme

KTG payments
KTG payments are broken down as follows;

A total of 7 meetings and events will be organised per KTG - the maximum payment to each participant is €490.

KTG evaluation
An evaluation process will apply to ensure that only applications that reach a minimum standard are considered. Applications will also be ranked in the event that the scheme is over subscribed

Each KTG application received will be rated according to the following criteria;

• How client base/membership/future participants would benefit from membership of your KTG(s); 
• Capacity/experience of each KTG organiser to run the KTG programme; 
• Extent of previous knowledge transfer activities (list field trips, seminars, publications etc.). 
• Promotion strategy to attract inactive forest owners to the KTG.

All applicants will be ranked according to the marks awarded. Available KTGs will be distributed 50:50 between forestry producer groups and forestry companies/forestry consultants.

The KTG Pilot Scheme
In order to test the KTG learning format the Department decided to run a KTG pilot project in 2017 for private forest owners modelled on the Department's existing KTG programme. The pilot involved 269 participants over 14 individual KTGs.

Further details and application forms can be found on the DAFM website at: https://www.agriculture.gov.ie/forestservice/grantsandpremiumschemes2015-2018/