Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine, Andrew Doyle T.D., today 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.
This is an ideal opportunity for forest owners to come together to learn more about the management of their forests and how to go about preparing for thinning and selling their timber. The Forestry KTG concept is similar to the KTGs in other farm enterprises including dairy, beef and sheep. It involves a combination of forest owners learning from each other’s experiences and being guided by a facilitator. The format involves site visits as well as indoor discussions.
Under the scheme forestry groups (including Forest Owner Groups), forestry companies and forestry consultants can apply to organise KTGs.
KTG participation and payments
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 are broken down as follows: each KTG participant will receive €70 per meeting attended while each KTG organiser will receive €6,500 per KTG organised.
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 oversubscribed. 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.
Invitation to submit an application form (Form A)
Applications to establish and run a national network of KTGs are now invited from forestry groups (including Forest Owner Groups), forestry companies and individual forestry professionals. Once approval has issued by the Department, successful applicants will then invite forest owners to submit an expression of interest to take part in the KTG they are running.
Please note that at this stage the application is to run groups. If approved, individuals can subsequently apply to become participants of these groups.
Completed applications to be submitted by 4 pm, Friday 14 September 2018.
Click here for contact details, full scheme details and application form ›
