Chaired by the French Ministry of Agriculture, the conferences serve as platforms for dialogue with regional differences. Four thematic working groups have been formed whose task is the development of proposals from October to January 2022. Topics and targets include making forests carbon neutral, strengthening the resilience of forest ecosystems and the capacity of natural resources through a competitive French infrastructure as well as renewing consultations between forest owners and stakeholders on forest management.
At €7 billion, the trade balance of the French forestry sector and the timber industry showed a structural deficit last year, as the government informed in a press release. Already in October 2020, the French government allocated €500 million to forestry as part of the France 2030 investment plan. Another €200 million were made available by the France Relance reconstruction plan, €150 million of which are earmarked for the reforestation of 45,000 hectares of land (50 million trees) and €50 million for the modernization of the wood processing industry. In July, the wood and pulp industry was granted another €100 million loan.
France owns 17 million hectares of forests and a further 6.2 million hectares in the French overseas territories, of which 6 million hectares are located in Guyana alone. 75% of the forests are private, 16% are communal and 9% are state forests, with hardwood accounting for 72% and softwood for 28% of forest stocks.
