EUROPE AND THE FOREST - VOLUME 3
First part - THE FIFTEEN-MEMBER EUROPEAN UNION AND THE FOREST : STAKES AND STRATEGIES
Chapter I.3 - EUROPEAN KNOW-HOW IN FORESTRY : A CHALLENGE TO ACCEPT
I.3.1 FROM AN INEXHAUSTIBLE RESOURCE TO A SHORTAGE: HOW EUROPE HAS BEEN LED TO MANAGE ITS FORESTS SUSTAINABLY
I.3.1.1 - Stages of evolution
Shortages begin to appear: to resolve the crisis, measures are taken to ensure resource regeneration and management
Throughout the entire Mediterranean region, due both to climate and the early development of advanced civilisations (ancient Greek and Roman), crises occurred very early in relation to forest degradation or disappearance.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF AWARENESS
Clairvoyant thinking in ancient Greece and Rome Plato, Critias, III. "There were large forests in the mountains whose traces are still visible today. If, in these mountains, some only nourish bees, not so long ago trees were cut for large construction needs [...]. The soil provided infinite foraging possibilities for livestock and also collected Zeus' annual rainwater, which did not run over bare soil into the sea as it does today. Since the earth was still thick and received water which it stored in impermeable clay, it let water it had absorbed in the heights run down into the valleys, providing abundant springs and large rivers everywhere." Cicero, 2nd Philipics. "The destroyers of the forest are the worst enemies of public welfare." Pliny the Elder, Natural History, XXXI, 30. "When the forest that contains and disperses storms is destroyed on the hills, disastrous torrents are certain to build up."
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It was then necessary to wait until the second millennium, more precisely to the end of the 15 th century, for the demographic growth of the most populated regions of temperate Europe to experience real crises in forest resources:
Human beings then became aware not only that the forest is finite but also of the diversity of services that it provides. They discovered the notions of general interest and reversibility. The preservation of wooded land became a concern for local authorities who found themselves obliged to develop a system of reasonable forest use, aiming to use only a limited quantity of resources and thus progressively set up increasingly complex technical and legal organisations to ensure protection, then reconstitution of the forest.
This awareness sometimes came too late. Consequently, the irreversible degradation on a human scale of some Mediterranean forests is a reminder that the situation must be reversible if man is to adapt during crisis situations. Fortunately, the majority of European forests are made up of very resilient ecosystems often able to ensure - at the least - soil conservation.
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THE BEGINNING OF AWARENESS
A look at French forests Starting in the 15 th century, when most tropical and boreal forest ecosystems were still virgin, the French were already reaching the limits of the forests. Because of the high rate of population growth and standard of living, residents of Paris were no longer able to find enough wood for heating in nearby forests and lived in fear every autumn of winter shortages. A real domestic wood supply network was progressively developed, floating close to a million m 3 of wood by river from Morvan, a small granite formation in the far north of the Massif Central. The king was just as concerned with the growing difficulties of his ministers in supplying naval shipbuilding sites with oak for its navy warships as with the insidious but constant regression of his forest hunting estates. The situation required something to be done in order to avoid cyclical crises. Under Louis XIV, Minister Colbert thus laid down the foundations of continuous forest management in his famous Ordinance of 1669, based on previous ordinances, particularly the one from 1318, reinstated in 1516 by François I. At the end of the 18 th century, French forests, which already supplied the majority of national energy needs (forges, glassworks, salt extraction, tile works, etc.) nevertheless were seriously degraded by several centuries of overexploitation and barely covered 9 million hectares*. The Forestry Code of 1827 developed and updated all previous provisions. But the long battle continued for favorising the long term (timber production) rather than the short term (domestic, forging and industrial needs for combustibles) and was only truly won with the development of agricultural techniques and collieries which significantly reduced pressures on the forest. The surface area of the French forest today is over 15 million hectares. * From Cinotti (B.) - Évolution des surfaces boisées en France. Proposition de reconstitution depuis le début du XIX e siècle - Revue forestière française XLVIII n°6. - Nancy, 1996. - pp. 547-562.
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