The government signs a reforestation charter for a "more resilient" French forest

"The first of the challenges is obviously climate change, which is disrupting many forest ecosystems," Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie said during a press briefing, by videoconference with all the players in the sector.

The agricultural component of the recovery plan provides for 200 million euros for the forest, including 150 million euros to reforest forests sometimes severely affected by drought and insect attacks on trees, such as bark beetles. These beetles dig holes in trees weakened by drought.

To promote the resilience of forests in the face of global warming, Philippe Gourmain, forestry expert and speaker at this conference, notably advocated a "dilution of risks", in particular by means of "diversification of species, of provenances, to produce more provenances. from the south of France and Europe, and the diversification of treatments ".

The minister was arrested towards the end of the conference by Sylvain Angerand, of the Canopée association, who denounced a plan to revive the forest "based on a lot of clear cuts followed by plantations mainly in monoculture".

For the NGO, which denounced an operation of "smoking", "this plan is not a plan of adaptation of the forest to climate change but to the needs of the industry".

"For me, a forest is protected and a forest is cultivated", replied the Minister, who considered that the forest "is a space of protection for its environmental benefit, it is a societal space and it is a space also of culture ".

He recalled that the forest is progressing from 0,7 to 1% in area per year, and "has doubled since the XNUMXth century", while denouncing the fact that France "imports wood to make wood construction": " I reject the fact that a forest that is not cultivated would have a better environmental benefit, "he concluded.