Oak, chestnut trees, fir trees that are trunted without the knowledge of plot owners. The French who heat in wood know it well, the price of French wood has reached heights in recent years. A resource that can therefore report big. As a result, French forests are affected by a real scourge: theft of trees. A special issue has therefore recently been set up to try to identify the victims.
In two weeks, Fransylva, the union of forest owners has already received around twenty calls. Individuals who found that trees had disappeared in their plot. The thugs can act at night, but also in broad daylight, according to Antoine d’Amécourt, the president of Fransylva: “They come by day. They make a small investigation. They ask the neighbors who owns the little wood. Afterwards, the people around say they are cutting down the trees, but that it may be normal since there was someone who came to ask who it belonged …“
For these forest owners, economic damage can count in thousands of euros. “”They attack especially in places where there are trees that are interesting, beautiful oaks which can be worth the oak between 500 and 1,000 euros, reports the president of Fransylva. There are people who are attached to it because they received it from their parents, their grandparents. “
“They have memories in their woods. It is really a tsunami for them, the loss of a family heritage.”
Antoine d’Amécourt the president of Fransylvaon franceinfo
Unfortunately, it is difficult to go back to thieves. Some owners take time to realize the flight. Others do not file a complaint. And investigations do not always succeed. “”They will see the gendarmes and as long as that day, the gendarmes are very taken by other much more important things and that does not necessarily give follow-upunderlines Antoine d’Amécourt. The gendarmes today, in the countryside are overwhelmed by many other things. It is from the moment we bring together, that we will say that there is a real subject. And then it will be easier for them to know how to act“.
Among the most affected regions at the moment: the Grand-Est, where around forty victims have already been identified in Moselle.
Sometimes thieves are clearly identified, since these trees are often committed by professional loggers. Unscrupulous companies that sign contracts with owners, but cut many more trees than expected or overflow on neighboring plots.
This is what happened in the Yvelines, in the commune of September. “”You are typically in the Yvelin countryside, with all its small groves in the middle of the fields“, Underlines Virginie, who is part, with Philippe, of the Saupons La Tournelle association. They take us to one of these groves, victim of abusive cuts in 2022.”Iciattests Philippe, They said they only cut 50%. So that means that it should remain 28 equivalent oaks. You can count them, there is none of them“.
A visible strain, one of the rare remains of the flight, came from a tree that has between “120 and 150 years old“. “The law does not allow them to do this because we are in wooded areas classifiedadds Virginie. That is to say that the municipalities, in their local urban planning plans, want to preserve and protect this type of small plot. So it is all these small plots that also make our landscapes that are seriously threatened“.
“Their only objective is the money. And it is absolutely necessary that we do something to stem this hemorrhage, because we go to the drama.”
Philippe Heurtevent President of the Saups Les Yvelines associationon franceinfo
Environmental defenders carried out the investigation themselves by identifying the containers in which the oaks were loaded. “”By taking photostells Philippe Heurtevent President of the Sauvons les Yvelines association, We noted the containers registrations and therefore we were able to follow with the numbers, the containers and we saw them take the boat in Antwerp, cross the Channel, arrive in the Atlantic, pass the Mediterranean and arrive in China“.
In this case, the company was finally convicted of having illegally cut more than 250 oaks out of 35 different plots, for damage estimated at 160,000 euros. “”They have no respect for other trees. When they shoot down, it falls as it falls, it breaks everything around “castigate Philippe Heurtevent.
The first of the advice for forest owners is to remain vigilant obviously in the face of the proposals of forest operating companies. Augustin Tournyol, forest manager, also pleads for training with owners. “”In the cases I have managed, as a judicial expert in a wayhe said, They were owners who were not very aware of the value of their wood, who were barely aware of the cadastral limits of their plots and who were attracted to proposed sums which seem important, but who are derisory in view of the real value of the woods “.
For this forest manager, “Being a forest owner is a responsibility on an ecosystem that is very rich and I think that the owners have the duty to train. And after simply visiting their forest“Even today, three quarters of French forests are deprived, with more than 3 million owners.
