"Can we do without wood?" ": The sector denounces a permanent amalgamation in public opinion

For the past few weeks, the forest and the use of wood have been hot topics. Professor Laurent BLERON, Director of ENSTIB (National School of Wood Technologies and Industries) and Professor Pascal TRIBOULOT, Honorary Director of ENSTIB, Vice-President of FIBOIS Grand-Est, tell us about their current state of affairs. on the image of the wood / forest sector and confronts it with reality.

The permanent amalgam, between the shocking images of deforestation in tropical areas and the reality of the progression of forest heritage throughout the European continent, the idea that the forests of the Morvan are the generalized expression of French forests, the impression given that the timber companies and the foresters are all "sold to big capital" and work systematically with great blows of mechanized monsters and recurring spraying of glyphosate and other devastating inputs end up boring.

Can we do without wood? This is the only question that public opinion must ask itself.

If the answer is yes, so let's accept the idea of the all-out use of fossil resources and the concreteization of the planet. Currently, each inhabitant of our earth consumes one m³ of concrete per year, why not two or three, it is so good for global warming ... Our forests can then be put under a hood, return to their primary state, become again impenetrable and much less pleasant for walking or mountain biking. Sunday, or simply disappear, swept away in their turn by global warming, the effects of which are much faster than the only adaptation of forests to their environments.

If the answer is no, so let's change our perspective on specialists: forest managers, lumberjacks, sawyers, secondary processing companies, scientists who advocate a balance through the multifunctionality of the forest, or who highlight the environmental interest of the use of wood , and therefore the harvest of trees. Let's stop seeing them as suspects. If the forest is multifunctional, it is also one of the best illustrations of what sustainable development is. The three pillars of sustainable development: social, ecological and economic are united there better than elsewhere. We also find, in this link between forest and wood, magnificent examples of the circular economy and the emergence of the concept of short circuits. The women and men who put their energy, their talents, their convictions and their passion at the service of the forest territories and the companies responsible for the sector, are often as silent as the trees that grow. It is time to listen to them!

Example of the reconstruction of Notre-Dame

Public opinion is once again "on fire": 3.500 m3 of oaks sacrificed, unacceptable to harvest the 1.000 to 1.500 oaks necessary for reconstruction!

However, there are approximately 1,3 billion sodden and pedunculate oaks in France.
This operation therefore represents 0.0001% of the capital of available oaks ...
The annual biological growth of French oaks is of the order of 14 million m³.
The 3.500 m³ of oak will be reconstituted in our forests in less than 2h30….
It is basic arithmetic level CM2: [(365 days x 24h) / 14.000.000 m³] x 3.500 m³ = 2,18h.
2h30 of production, without any noise, by sampling the CO² atmospheric and with the sun as the only energy ...

Forests and the use of wood play an essential role in fulfilling France's environmental commitments. The communication and educational effort on the need for dynamic forest management also concerns the generations of future actors that we are training at ENSTIB. For them, we owed it to ourselves to intervene in this debate.

Professor Laurent BLERON, Director of ENSTIB

Professor Pascal TRIBOULOT, Honorary Director of ENSTIB, Vice-President of FIBOIS Grand-Est