A few days after the violent fires which ravaged thousands of hectares of forest in Gironde and Brittany, the Senate reacted.

In a report published on Wednesday, the advisers of the Republic propose 70 measures supposed to avoid the burning of the forests.

Although global warming is the main cause of these fires, the Senate measures instead focus on smaller-scale solutions.

The report recommends, among other things, to reverse the 500 job cuts planned by 2025 at the National Forestry Office (ONF) and, on the contrary, to extend the scope of intervention of this ailing institution which manages 11 million hectares of French public forests.

Enforce brush clearing

While the French surveillance and rapid intervention strategy has "proved its worth", dividing by five the annual areas burned over the period 2015-2020 compared to the 1980s, "France must however prepare for an unfavorable evolution of the risk, structurally caused by global warming and the increase in forest biomass", notes the report produced by six elected representatives from the center and the right.

Recalling the great effectiveness of clearing brush to prevent fires, reduce their intensity and preserve homes, the senators note that this legal obligation, for approximately 3 million private owners, is too little applied: “often less than 30%”.

To remedy this, they propose several levers: awareness plan, reinforced penal sanctions, tax incentives or increase in the insurance deductible in the event of non-compliance.

Reforest intelligently

The report also recommends enhancing the role of pastoral and agricultural activities which, by “creating discontinuities in vegetation, play the role of a firewall”.

Elected officials deplore the insufficiency of air resources and demand an increase in the annual funds allocated to the departmental fire and rescue services (SDIS).

Faced with a management considered insufficient of the private forest, which represents three quarters of the French forest, the senators propose "lowering the threshold of obligation" of sustainable management for the private forest to 20 hectares, against 25 to date.

Finally, after a fire, the senators would like state aid for reforestation to be conditional "on choices of species and management adapted to the fire risk (for example by maintaining firebreaks, experimenting with corridors of hardwoods or lower stand density).

Planet

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