Minister Healy-Rae welcomes European experts’ engagement at Windblow Taskforce
- Published on: 8 April 2025
- Last updated on: 11 April 2025
Minister of State with responsibility for Forestry, Farm Safety and Horticulture, Michael Healy-Rae, has welcomed European experts’ engagement at Ireland’s Forest Windblow Taskforce.
Minister Healy-Rae said:
“I welcome today’s engagement with our colleagues from the Forest Europe-endorsed Forest Risk Facility. This facility provides European countries and experts with a collaborative platform to strengthen international cooperation, and to share expertise and good practice, on how to manage the impacts on forests from natural events such as wind, fire and disease. There are many countries that have experienced similar natural disasters resulting in catastrophic wind damage such as Storm Éowyn. Today’s engagement is important, and we heard some useful insights on how countries have managed large storm events across Europe.”
Silvia Abruscato, the senior expert at the European Forest Institute, leading the Secretariat of the Forest Risk Facility, said:
“We welcome the opportunity to come to Ireland and to share experiences, and to highlight the importance of this new facility. Our forests across Europe are facing numerous threats and challenges, and we need to cooperate and to learn from others in order to enhance the resilience of our forests. Today, Dr Christoph Hartebrodt, who has extensive experience in wind and risk management, has shared useful insights on how to manage the consequences of windblow.”
Dr Hartebrodt emphasised the importance of assessing the challenges and bottlenecks along the supply chain, from harvesting to delivery of timber products to markets. He emphasised not rushing to harvest trees until haulage and markets are in place, and that windblown trees still attached to the root plate will remain in good condition for a period of time.
The Windblow Taskforce will now develop a detailed action plan building on the work completed to date, and will also use expertise from the pan-European Forest Risk Facility and other stakeholders to inform the next steps. A workshop is planned for early May to inform the action plan currently being developed.
Notes
Forest Risk Facility (FoRISK), endorsed by Forest Europe
Forest Europe, a pan-European voluntary forest policy process, has endorsed the establishment of the new Forest Risk Facility (FoRISK) during the 9th Forest Europe Ministerial Conference in Bonn last October.
The Facility aims to help pan-European countries reach a common understanding on approaches for tackling the most pressing forest risks and support their work by:
- further strengthening international and transboundary cooperation and networking on disaster risk management, forest adaptation and resilience
- stimulating knowledge and information exchange within the policy-science-practice interface
- increasing proactive engagement with the public and the media and disseminating information in an accessible and appropriate format
The European Forest Institute provides the Secretariat for the Facility which is based in Bonn, Germany.
The Windblow Taskforce was addressed by Silvia Abruscato and Dr Christoph Hartebrodt from the Forest Risk Facility Secretariat (EFI Bonn based).
Dr Christoph Hartebrodt has extensive expertise in forest risk with particular emphasis on wind. Silvia Abruscato is a Senior Expert in the European Forest Institute and is coordinating the development, and operational implementation of the Secretariat for the pan-European Forest Risk (FoRISK) Facility.
Forest Licensing Statistics
Currently over 60% of the windblown area has a felling licence.