CELT windfall gives roots to agroforestry project

THE Centre for Environmental Living and Training (Celt) has been awarded funding of €12,000 from the Department of Environment to establish a small agroforestry project.
The funding was awarded recently under capacity-building, which is part of Department of the Environment’s core-funding for Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) with a national remit.
The project involves the integration of trees into farming systems using permaculture design rather than as separate plantations. This can provide added value to the farm, timber, fruit and nuts as well as enhanced biodiversity and carbon storage.
A spokesperson for Celt said assessors for this project thought Celt’s agroforestry proposal “showed great potential, not only for building capacity of Celt, but for offering scope for sustainable farm diversification that could help small farmers throughout Ireland”. 
Celt must source match-funding and will be drawing up a comprehensive business plan and approaching the Department of Agriculture and other appropriate bodies for such funds. 
“This is a relatively small-scale project and Celt is in discussion with a number of landowners around the country who would be interested in doing something on a larger scale if there is any possibility of help from rural development funds.  It is feasible that some of the projects could become centres of excellence for education and training, this will certainly be an aim of this pilot Celt project. There could be major job creation opportunities. An association called Agroforestry Ireland has been inaugurated whereby ideas and information can be shared and links have been established with Agroforestry Research Trust (UK) and with agroforestry projects in Northern Ireland,” he explained.
The spokesperson outlined that Agroforestry has proven successful in a number of other countries including the UK, Australia and Africa. In Ireland, it would be very much about integrating mainly native broadleaf trees and shrubs into the farmed landscape using carefully thought-out design so that the different components help each other.
“This is quite different from conventional or mainstream plantation forestry and separate farmland fields. These type of systems offer great potential in Ireland and can help the small farmer to diversify without having to give up his way of life with cattle or food crops.
“The project aims to establish four small agroforestry systems in East Clare, to include riparian silvo-arable zone for native trees with organic vegetables and herbs and a silvo-pastural site for fruit and nut species plus chickens and some vegetable/herb plots, a silvo-arable site for mixed tree species (including fruit and nuts) with grain, vegetables and herbs. Also, a multifunctional site with mixed trees (including fruit and nuts) plus some coppice management (for biomass production) plus vegetable/herbs and edible mushrooms grown on birch logs. Part of this site will be used for grazing animals. These will be used for education and training and will form templates that landowners can use as a basis for establishing their own systems,” he outlined.
The project will be monitored in liaison with Teagasc, Ca lare County Council heritage officer and Clare Biodiversity group. Celt will be seeking volunteers to provide practical help with the project.
The announcement comes after Celt held their 22nd   Weekend in the Woods skills training event over the weekend of October 2 and 3. It once again proved a great success with more than 80 participants in attendance from all around the country.
They were able to avail of the expertise of professional tutors to learn a skill over the two days including copper smithing, herb lore, basketry, natural building, wood carving, blacksmithing, spinning and weaving, stone carving, greenwood furniture, súgán chair making, silversmithing, felt-making and, for the youngsters, woodcrafts and rustic art.
Organic food was available at the Rustic Restaurant, along with refreshments at the teashop in the woods and a group of people from the Rossport Solidarity Camp in Mayo joined in by providing freshly cooked pizzas from the clay oven. Apart from learning skills and sharing ideas and information, everyone had a fun weekend and there was a big music and singing session round the campfire on the Saturday evening.
A Celt spokesperson said, “This event is always popular and is supported by the Heritage Council. We want to keep these skills alive and they are all the more valuable in the light of recession, peak oil and climate change. The whole idea is about living sustainably and increasing personal and community resilience to the effects of problems beyond our control.”
Celt are involved with local community groups in ecological surveys at Tuamgraney Woodland Wildlife Park, which took a special award in Tidy Towns and Ayle Lower Bog, Feakle, which is one of the few remaining examples of biodiversity-rich raised bog in the region.
Further information is available on Celt website www.celtnet.org or email info@celtnet.org.