Many heads of state have promised to plant millions of trees during the COP27 held in Egypt in November 2022. The announcement of the President of the French Republic, upstream of this world event, is By far one of the most ambitious: planting a billion trees by 2032. The tree and the forests are regularly presented as the solution based on nature, which falls under the direction, to compensate and reduce the gas emissions greenhouse effect and other ailments produced by our savings.
This is what we could call Elzéard Bouffier’s syndrome, named after the hero of the new man who planted trees (1953), by Jean Giono: just plant trees to save the world. In no way it is a question of denigrating the merit of Elzéard Bouffier, who really saves his region of desertification resulting from an unbearable use of forest resources by planting trees, at the cost of a stubborn effort of several decades.
There are, certainly, regions of the world in which the forest surface has been in clear and constant decline for decades, as FAO figures clearly show, in particular for the benefit of agriculture and urbanization . This is not the case in Europe or in France.
The forest in France has doubled its area since 1850
The French forest has a triple management objective: wood production, protection and recreation. It covers 31 % of the metropolitan area and its surface has been constantly increasing for almost two centuries, despite the fires. Its surface has more than doubled since 1850, and over the past thirty years it has increased by almost 3 million hectares (source IGN).
The increase in the forest owes little to the major reforestation programs such as the National Fund Fund (FFN), which was active during the fifty years which followed the Second World War. It is mainly resulting from natural regeneration, in particular due to the colonization of abandoned agricultural spaces thanks to the rural deprise.
In France, planting forests represent only 13 % of the forest area. The main objective is the main objective of the production of wood material. Planting a billion trees in ten years, is it “possible”, as the President of the Republic says? And if so, is it really a good idea?
The metropolitan forest covers 17.1 million hectares
There are many spaces for stake in France, in particular forests which are currently deteriorating and which could represent up to 7 % of forest areas in 2050, according to the scenario of attenuation of climate change followed worldwide according to The Canopée Association, or 1.2 million hectares (the metropolitan forest covers 17.1 million hectares).
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