EDUCATION

The overall rationale for the programme of activity outlined by Just Forests below is to stimulate, encourage and support schools in Ireland with issues of sustainable development through the lens of trees, forests and related issues.

"When Ireland’s tropical timber imports are aggregated over the last 50 years, they represent a sizeable area of forest destruction. For example, to produce the country’s (1996) imports on a sustainable basis would require an area of natural forest some 200 times the size of the Phoenix Park in Dublin. In 2000 Ireland’s trade in tropical hardwoods increased by 140% in value over the 1999 figure. Levels of consumption have made Ireland one of the highest per capita consumers of tropical hardwoods in the EU." (TEAK 21 extract)

If we're going to reduce poverty and create 'sustainable' employment in the long term, we need to recognise how it's linked to the environment and our dependence on natural resources...

Our approach to 'sustainable development' is a vision of development that encompasses populations, animals and plant species, ecosystems, natural resources and that integrates concerns such as the fight against poverty...we have to learn our way out of current social and environmental problems and learn to live sustainably. We need to place a real economic value on the benefits to biodiversity, indigenous peoples and to minimise forest plunder, greenhouse gas emissions and strategic rainforest sinks, to reduce consequences of climate change.
Dr. John Feehan,
UCD School of Biology & Environmental Science
Author and Patron of Just Forests.