Forests
Forest in Les Landes
MAEE, F. de la Mure
Wooded areas cover some 15 million hectares, 29% of France's total area.
Forest area in France has increased by 46% since 1945 and continues to grow by about 74,000 hectares each year. Most trees are deciduous (two-thirds), while the remaining third consists of conifers.
The National Forestry Office (Office national des Forêts - ONF) is responsible for managing national forests (1,750,000 hectares) and those belonging to local authorities (2,700,000 hectares).
The remaining 10,600,000 hectares belong to some 3,500,000 private owners. Forests in France are a source of biological and scenic wealth, a place for excursions and relaxation; they also yield an annual harvest of 53 million cubic metres of timber. They also make an irreplaceable contribution to rural development by supplying the raw material for a number of industries which provide numerous jobs.
Forest land also contributes to the efforts to combat climate change by storing atmospheric carbon. The extra carbon stored annually by French forests is estimated at 10 million metric tons.
- Sources: Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs
- Updated: 25.06.2008
