The provision of technical services to estimate employment and economic activity associated with the forestry sector

Tender description

The COFORD Working Group to formulate the socioeconomic contribution of the Irish forestry sector was established, inter alia, to scope out and evaluate models that could be used to update figures on the contribution of the forestry sector to the national economy, including the bioeconomy. One of the challenges to assessing the contribution of the forestry sector to the national economy is the high proportion of work that is undertaken by contractors and sub-contractors. Across all areas of activity in forestry, from establishment to harvesting to haulage, the work involved is often contracted to companies who in turn sub-contract this work. Arising from the prevalence of work contracting in the forestry and wood processing sectors, official employment statistics for forestry in Ireland may only capture a proportion of the employment and economic activity. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) invites you to tender for the delivery of services associated with estimating the employment and economic activity generated by the forestry sector. The objective of this study is to estimate the employment and economic activity generated by the forestry sector. This study should provide coefficients, that when coupled with high-level information that is available on forest activities (e.g. level of afforestation), can be used to estimate employment and economic activity on an ongoing basis.