The forest of France is similar to the country itself: incredibly varied due to geographic and geological, climatic as well as socio-economic and historical factors. With 138 species of trees, the French forest that is located in the mainland of France comprises more than 75 percent of the species in Europe. There’s plenty to explore in the French forest where nature is a part of history and culture.
The story of the forest in France
The forest has experienced an extensive change over the years:
In Ancient Times, forest covered 75% of the land of Gaul.At the start 1900s the percentage of forest cover was reduced to 15%.Today due to the reforestation process, it covers around 30% of the area.
In reality, the rate of afforestation across France has increased dramatically since the 19th century due to massive reforestation efforts. It accounts for 13% of European forest area.However it is true that the French forest was severely damaged by the storms that struck 29 and 26 December 1999 that destroyed seven years of Harves.
The French forest during the 20th and 21st centuries.
In 1914, it was 10 million acres.
1947 1948: 1947: the creation of the National Forestry Fund to finance the plantation of conifers as well as poplars for paper pulp which was terribly deficient during the war.
1966 saw 1966 saw the creation in 1966 of ONF and it was the National Forests Office (French: Office national des forets). In 1966, the ONF is a government agency located in Paris that oversees the forest reserves of the city, the state forests, and biological reserves.
The end of the twenty-first century growth of the forest was mostly due to abandonment of agricultural land (approximately 80,000 ha annually).
The 1999 storm destroyed 1 million hectares of land; roughly 10 years of production present. This led to the introduction of a program of industrial wood extraction.
