January 2009
abstract
Responsabilité & Environnement
French forests
Issue editor:
Renaud Abord de Châtillon
Issue 53
Editorial
By Pierre Couveinhes
The legal and regulatory framework: Tapping available resources
The history of a forest torn between Colbertism and liberalism
By Jean-Louis Guérin
Directeur adjoint du Centre Régional de la Propriété Forestière (CRPF) de Bourgogne
The governance of forests dates from years ago, but it has swung back and forth between “liberalism” and government control…
Private forests, a misappraised potential
By Michel de Galbert
ENGREF 1977, Directeur du Centre Régional de la Propriété Forestière Rhône-Alpes
Private forests cover nearly 20% of France’s surface area, and account for 74% of all woodlands, in all: eleven million hectares. As a captor of CO2, they are crucial to sustainable development. The major snag is that these private holdings are carved up into small parcels. However solutions exist that are starting to be applied.
Communal woodlands at the service of sustainable forestry and local development
By Jean-Claude Monin
Président de la Fédération Nationale des Communes Forestières (FNCOFOR)
There are 11.000 “wooded” communes — nearly one out of three communes! — in France. Their 2.600.000 hectares of woodlands represent a sixth of the country’s forests. With strong government support, elected local officials want to turn their communal woodlands into an asset for a territorial development that addresses the major issues of this third millennium.
Do property rights still exist in woodlands?
By Vincent Ott
Président du Syndicat des Forestiers Privés d'Alsace
The owners of woodlands play an indispensable part in sustainable local management. Will proliferating environmental regulations prove effective?
Using the resources of French forests
By Jean-Marie Ballu
Ingénieur général du Génie Rural des Eaux et des Forêts Président de la Section "nature, forêt, paysage" du Conseil général de l'agriculture, de l'alimentation et des espaces ruraux (CGAAER)
For thirty years now, many reports have been written about how to develop the yield of wood from French forests; but they have had little effect. What measures should be implemented to tap this resource and reduce our balance-of-trade deficit?
Forests in the world
French forests and Europe’s forestry policy
By Ségolène Halley des Fontaines
(IGREF), Sous-directrice de la Forêt et du Bois, ministère de l'Agriculture et de la Pêche
Two major meetings (the “Grenelle of the Environment” and the “Assizes of the Forest”) have drawn up a plan for producing timber and wood products. A broad consensus among both foresters and environmental organizations supports this plan, which is grounded on clear principles for working forests in compliance with a sustainable management that preserves biodiversity. France is defending these principles in European and international meetings.
The forest and wood industry in Europe and the world
By Daniel Guinard
Directeur général du FCBA (Institut technologique Forêt, Cellulose, Bois-construction, Ameublement)
Woodlands tend to be expanding in temperate zones, but are still vanishing in the tropics. In the future, plantations with varieties of fast-growing trees should significantly change the timber supply. The demand for energy from wood will flare up; and wood will be increasingly used in reconstituted forms that significantly improve its performance.
Silviculture out to conquer the planet: “Imitate nature, hasten its workings”
By Marie-Jeanne Lionnet
Versailles - Bibliothécaire retraitée de l'Ecole forestière de Nancy Agro Paris-Tech
Although texts from a faraway past were devoted to the forest, the art of forestry became a science in the 19th century — a science now diffused all over the planet.
Forests: An asset in sustainable development
Certification, a major strategic tool for implementing a policy of sustainable forestry
By Renaud Abord de Châtillon
Président de l'Association Bourguignonne de Certification Forestière (ABCF)
and Matthieu Lesne
Chargé de mission de l'Association Bourguignonne de Certification Forestière (ABCF), délégué régional PEFC
The purpose of certification is to guarantee consumers that they are purchasing products using wood that comes from forests managed in conformity with the principles of sustainable development. Almost a third of woodlands in France have been certified.
The Morvan Forest Charter
By Anne-Catherine Loisier
Maire de Saulieu, vice-présidente du Parc du Morvan et co-présidente de la commission forêt
The purpose of the Morvan Forest Charter is to satisfy environmental and social demands while improving the competitive edge of local producers and of the chain of production from logs to timber to wood products.
French forests, a rich but menaced biodiversity
By Daniel Vallauri
Fondation WWF-France
and Emmanuelle Neyroumande
Responsable "Forêts, Fondaction WWF-France
Forests represent a sanctuary and a reservoir of biodiversity, even more so since farming leaves little room for this diversity owing to its intense treatment of the soil, the cutting of hedges and the draining of wetlands.
The damage done to forests by the increasing number of storms or droughts
By Philippe Riou-Nivert
Institut pour le développement forestier (Centre national professionnel de la propriété forestière)
What measures should be taken to reduce the impact of storms on woodlands? What consequences will global warming have? What are the remedies?
To produce more and better preserve resources: Forestry firms
By Jacques Ducerf
Président d'APROVALBOIS Conseil régional de Bourgogne
The production chain from forest to wood includes firms with quite varied activities having as much to do with farming as with industry or the crafts. In France, it represents about 450.000 jobs (direct and indirect) and 60 billion euros in sales — as many jobs as the automobile industry but for sales amounting to three times less.
From wood to energy
By Jean François Bontoux
Président de l'Association Française des Eaux et Forêts Président de FRANCILBOIS
Owint to the stiff increase in petroleum prices, wood is becoming very competitive as a source of energy under condition that it is used by efficient installations. This source of energy might, some day soon, satisfy a large part of the country’s heating needs.
A look at the sustainable management of forests in France
By Bernard Roman Amat
Ingénieur Général du GREF Président de PEFC Lorraine Directeur délégué du centre de Nancy d'AgroParistech-ENGREF
The owners of woodlands used to be under the jurisdiction of government officials. They have become more active as a result of “ecocertification”. In association with companies in the sector, they are playing a concrete role in sustainably managing the country’s forests.
An experience as “forest delegate”
By Henri Prévot
Ingénieur général des mines
One characteristic of silviculture is the considerable time gap between the outlays to be made and the income to be derived from them. Adapting finances in this sector could spur investment and increase the volume of wood placed on the market — to the profit of all parties in forestry.