French Forestry
by Angus, 24 May, 2012, 10 comments
French forestry - six times as big as British Forestry
If you drive through France on the toll motorways ("peages") you will have seen woodlands through the car window and may have wondered how the French organise their forestry. Not only do they do things differently but they do forestry on a much larger scale than the UK. France itself is more than 2.5 times as big as Britain in area and its woodland cover is much greater. The French have 28% tree cover whereas the UK is only about 12% wooded. The effect of a larger country with denser tree cover is that the french forestry sector is over six times as large as UK forestry. You can get a feel for this larger size when you consider that one French forest alone (Foret des Landes in Aquitane near Bordeaux) is as big as 50% of all UK forestry combined. It covers 12,600 square kilometres (about 112 kilometres by 112 km) and contains vast areas of maritime pine and scots pine and is a favoured location for free-range chickens. Read more...
