Paris (AFP)

Victim of drought and pest attacks, the French forest is facing a "sanitary disaster" it tries to contain by anticipating the harvest of its trees, a measure that has reduced the price of some species.

Thirsty for the drought that has plagued this summer, the French forests are also prey to beetles, beetles that, attracted by dried trees, dig tunnels under the bark, preventing the sap from circulating.

Main species affected by this double scourge, fir and spruce, mainly in the Grand-Est and Bourgogne / Franche-Comté regions.

"We are in a major health disaster, it started with the spruces, but we also have the fir trees that dry a year later and now we have beech and even oak declining, following the heat", explains to the AFP Nicolas Douzain-Didier, General Delegate of the National Federation of Wood (FNB).

"Bark beetles attack between bark and wood, the only preventive method that exists is to cut the woods as early as possible at the first sign," Douzain-Didier explains.

This method makes it possible to "preserve the whole heart of wood", the most valued part, used in timber (construction).

During the year 2018-2019, two million cubic meters of spruce were harvested in public forests, twice as much as a normal harvest, of which 60% of the trees are estimated to be beetles. , says the NFB in a note published on August 30.

Problem, this forced harvest has mechanically melted the courses.

For the fir and spruce, "on the timber there has been a decline in prices of 30% since the beginning of the year, and is expected to 50% in the coming months", told AFP Antoine d'Amécourt, president of Fransylva, federation of private foresters' unions in France.

The stakes are high in a building sector where the use of wood is booming: "Of the 20 million cubic meters of timber harvested each year, 12 million cubic meters are softwoods, of which half of fir trees and spruces ", summarizes M. d'Amécourt.

- A peak of the forest claimed -

"In the French forest, there is a big problem of renewal and therefore the forest owner who will have no yield and costs on a stand that collapses, I do not see what money he can invest, it's important costs ", alarmed M. d'Amécourt.

And the problem does not seem to be getting better.

"The situation is evolving and the effects on the forests will continue to manifest themselves and will depend on the climate to come," said in a letter this summer the Department of Forest Health, which depends on the Ministry of Agriculture.

"It's as powerful as the last storm of 1999, in terms of the affected trees, it's just going to last three or four years, it's less spectacular than a storm, and so it's hard to mobilize public authorities. , while there is a stake of renewal of the forest which is enormous ", laments M. Douzain-Didier.

He claims "a Grenelle of the forest or a top of the forest as in Germany, piloted by the President of the Republic".

Asked by AFP, the Ministry of Agriculture argues that the damage recorded in France are "not the same extent as those found in Germany" and that a national program of the wood forest has d? already on "the forest policy of France for the next 10 years".

At a meeting Tuesday of the Higher Council of Forestry and Timber, the Minister of Agriculture, Didier Guillaume however announced the establishment of a support plan of 16 million euros to help the harvesting and marketing of "bark" wood, and then rebuilding affected stands after logging.

Private foresters deplore by a "state withdrawal" of the CNPF (National Center for Forest Ownership), which works for the sustainable management of private forests and a significant decrease in its budget, information that the Ministry of Forestry Agriculture has not confirmed, but has not denied.

© 2019 AFP