After the emotion of public opinion last summer following the fires in the Amazon, France has also had to face a phenomenon of industrialization of its forests over the past thirty years.
Intensive tree exploitation contributes to the loss of biodiversity. Forests are becoming standardized to make way for the monoculture of fast-growing species.
The findings of the National Forest Inventory are alarming: Trees are being cut younger and younger, 80% of the trees in French forests are less than 100 years old and half of the forests are now made up of a single species.
The destruction of forests is also a social issue. According to the National Forestry Office (ONF): “In thirty years, 4 out of 10 forestry jobs have been lost.”
Faced with this situation, associations, trade unions, politicians and citizens are mobilizing.
Since then, on 24 September 2019, a citizens’ commission of inquiry called “Common Good Forest” has been launched to propose a law on alternative forest management. This bill will be officially presented in early 2020.
The Inquiry Committee wishes to address these issues by, among other things, stopping clear-cutting, banning pesticides and genetically modified trees and improving the working conditions of foresters.