A forest in France (illustrative image).

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RAPHAEL BLOCH / SIPA

Count on natural regeneration and… plant one tree per capita for the next 30 years.

This is one of the proposals of a report, delivered this Thursday, and intended to provide solutions to the government to protect the French forest.

Among the flagship recommendations, the creation of a "fund for the future of the forest, topped up by the public and the private sector, endowed with 300 million euros per year over 30 years", according to this report submitted by the deputy of Nord Anne-Laure Cattelot (LREM) to Minister of Agriculture Julien Denormandie.

The mission of this fund would be to "massively reconstitute the damaged forests, anticipate, enrich and adapt in the light of our knowledge the populations vulnerable to climate change and create new forests", indicates this report.

Reforest wasteland and old farmland

The reconstitution of stands (sets of plant species that live in the same biogeographical environment) affected by drought and the diseases caused by the latter, such as chalarose, a fungus that affects ash trees in Pas-de-Calais, represents to it only 360,000 hectares, according to this report.

There should also be 650,000 hectares of plantations "in the most vulnerable stands", but not yet condemned, according to this report.

Finally, to afforest wasteland or land abandoned by agriculture, the report recommends planting 750,000 hectares over 30 years.

Needs for construction

In total, the overall need is "8.8 billion euros over 30 years, or on average 300 million euros per year", concludes this report.

"These are conservative assumptions," said Anne-Laure Cattelot in an interview with AFP, who wrote this report with an expert from the Ministry of Agriculture and an expert from the Ministry of Ecological Transition.

"If we end up with an increase in the need for wood resources in construction and on the other hand a decline which accelerates the loss of the wood resource and of this super carbon sink, we find ourselves with our mouths in the water. , that's why we have to invest in the forest, ”she said.

She praised the envelope of 150 million euros for reforestation, announced recently by the Minister of Agriculture as part of the plan to revive the French economy: “it is already a very good amount, it will we have to launch a device and the foresters seize it, ”she said.

France has nearly 17 million hectares of forests, or about a third of the metropolis.

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