2023-10-14 11:00:01
The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, did not dwell on French forests on September 25, detailing his strategy for the ecological transition. But these are at the heart of the preparatory work of the General Secretariat for Ecological Planning (SGPE) which, after a year of work, established, sector by sector, objectives for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. tight. Those set for French forests are clear: in 2030, they will have to absorb 10 million tonnes more carbon dioxide (CO2) than in 2019, thus contributing to almost 5% of the reduction expected within seven years. (− 214 Mt).
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The problem is that the CO2 absorption capacity of forests has significantly decreased over the past fifteen years. While they absorbed more than 70 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2008, this quantity fell to 27 million tonnes in 2022, according to the Interprofessional Technical Center for Atmospheric Pollution Studies (Citepa)a division by almost three in less than fifteen years.
This rapid decline, which has tended to stabilize in recent years, makes the SGPE objectives difficult to achieve. “The recent decline in the net carbon sink of forests calls for an urgent review of the [stratégie nationale bas carbone], whose objectives will not be met »warned the Academy of Sciences in a June 2023 report. The fault is global warming, which weakens the health and vitality of trees.
Tree growth declines, mortality increases
The CO2 absorption capacity of the forest depends on several parameters: the increase in the volume of wood, tree mortality and human removal (cutting). The more positive the balance between these three terms, the more “volume” of forest there is capable of acting as a carbon sink. Over the period 2013-2021, the National Institute of Geographic and Forestry Information (IGN) estimates that, on average, tree growth created 88 million cubic meters of wood per year, while human harvesting decreased by 51 million cubic meters per year and tree mortality by 13 million cubic meters. The total remains positive (24 million cubic meters), but this balance has been decreasing since the 2000s, due to a slight decline in organic production, an increase in human harvesting and increasing mortality.
French forests therefore continue to grow, but at a slower rate since the 2000s. “The carbon pump continues to work, but it works less well than in the previous decade”explains Manuel Fulchiron, forest manager at IGN.
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