France, which has achieved forestry that imitates nature, is increasing production of large-diameter hardwood timber
Updated by Kotaro Nagasawa on September 24, 2025, 9:05 PM JST
Kotaro NAGASAWA
（Platinum Initiative Network, Inc.
Born in Tokyo in 1958. （Engaged in research on infrastructure and social security at Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. During his first few years with the company, he was involved in projects related to flood control, and was trained by many experts on river systems at the time to think about the national land on a 100- to 1,000-year scale. He is currently an advisor to Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. He is also an auditor of Jumonji Gakuen Educational Corporation and a part-time lecturer at Tokyo City University. Coauthor of "Introduction to Infrastructure," "New Strategies from the Common Domain," and "Forty Years After Retirement. D. in Engineering.
Previously introduced by Yukikazu MuraoForestry: German Forests and Japanese Forestry" (in Japanese)states that Germany in the early 17th century fell into timber poverty (German: Holznot) due to over-cutting, and in order to recover, they developed the concept of "hozoku" (conservation) and established a forestry school. It also says, "In the beginning, the faculty was mainly composed of French cameralists*. The French teachers were the most intelligent in Europe at that time. The French teachers were most troubled by the low level of German forestry workers, who had no academic background and learned only through experience. (*Cameralist: administrative researcher. (*Cameralist: administrative researcher, also known as "bureau scholar.")
A straightforward reading would indicate that, at least at one time, France was a country ahead of German forestry. Unfortunately, Mr. Murao does not mention French forestry any further.
It is not easy to find materials explaining French forestry, but an excellent book was published last spring. It is "France, Land of Broadleaf Trees" by Hitoshi Kadowaki. This time, I decided to read it on my Kindle.
The book is a single volume of 300 pages and is rich in content. It consists of three parts: an introduction to French forests and forestry, its history, and a comparison with Japan. Since I became interested in France through the history of Germany, the structure of the book differs from that of the original, but I would like to introduce some interesting parts of the book: the first part is about the history, and the second part is about the characteristics of French forests and forestry, and the comparison with Japan.
France was originally rich in forests, and Caesar and the Germanic tribes that migrated from Rome made extensive use of the abundant forest resources for fuel, building materials, shipbuilding, and other purposes. The people living in this region had acquired the technique of renewal by sprouting (selective growth of new shoots from the stumps and roots of felled trees), which prevented deforestation to a certain extent in ancient times.
Large-scale deforestation began in the Middle Ages, when the Frankish kingdom of the time encouraged cultivation of forests from around the 8th century, and the burgeoning monasteries vigorously cleared the land as part of their activities (or "duties" of monks), and the population growth also contributed to a period of overcutting that lasted about 500 years until around the 13th century.
As the authority of the papacy declined with the failure of the Crusades and royal power grew, the question of how to manage the land as royal property arose: in 1291, Philip IV established the position of "Superintendent of Water and Forests," and in 1346, Philip VI organized it into the "Royal Flood Control and Forest Department. Indeed, it is very advanced compared to its contemporaries in Japan (Kamakura period) and Germany (part of the Holy Roman Empire).
Demand for timber in France began to increase rapidly in the 15th century. As industry developed, demand for fuel and materials increased, and stolen and over logging became widespread.
The royal family could no longer ignore the problem, and Louis XIV (1638-1715) asked his trusted financial commissioner, Jean Batista Colbert (1619-1683), to take action. Colbert was known for his financial restructuring of the Bourbon dynasty, but for me, a civil engineering graduate, he was the one who budgeted the Canal du Midi. This trans-French canal made possible very short-distance shipping from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea, not via the Strait of Gibraltar. He also invited the astronomer Cassini from Italy, who provided the inspiration for a major project to create an accurate survey map of France. In other words, he was not just a professional in financial restructuring, but a man who invested in the infrastructure that would create the era.
Colbert thought about it. There has already been a royal flood control and forestry department since the 14th century. There is no way not to take advantage of this. And the needs of the times are for building ships (softwoods: public demand) and fuel and building materials (hardwoods: private demand). Considering all these factors, it is better to go for multi-layered forests (mixed coniferous and hardwood forests).
Colbert issued the so-called "Grand Edict of the Forest" in 1669. The scope of application was not limited to forest lands, but extended to all areas related to forests, including water sources, timber transportation, hunting, and fishing. It mandates forests owned by all levels of society to be managed, including periodic logging, and establishes detailed rules for forest conservation. The powers that forest officers could exercise over private forests were expanded, and all profits derived from royal forests became state revenue. French forest management was overhauled from the ground up. The French leaders in Germany at the beginning of the 17th century were probably the ones who helped increase royal forest income.
The French forest management system established by Colbert reached a turning point 100 years later with the French Revolution. The revolutionary government overthrew the monarchy and dismantled the forests owned by the royal family, monasteries, and exiled aristocrats to create state-owned forests, some of which were transferred to the people. State involvement in private and municipal forests was prohibited, and all forestry officials were removed. The effects of this have been felt even today, with state-owned forests in France accounting for only 91 TP3T of all forests, and private forests 751 TP3T, many of which are small and privately managed, less than 1 ha in size. The gradual increase in forest management and the expansion of industrial demand is said to have caused the land area ratio of French forests in the early 19th century to drop to 13.61 TP3T, the lowest in history.
However, the emphasis on multi-tiered forests was generally maintained after the French Revolution and continues to this day. There was a period of time when the success of Germany stimulated interest in large-scale, simultaneous, simple forestry in France, but as a result, it did not become mainstream.
In the 1980s, the low productivity of multi-tiered forests in response to the growing demand for forest products became an issue, and after much debate, the strategy adopted was to increase the production of large-diameter hardwoods. The author, Mr. Kadowaki, describes this as the French way of sticking to hardwoods.
The increase in production of large-diameter hardwoods was promoted as a national policy and gradually penetrated into small private forestry operations because of the availability of subsidies and investment trusts. 30 years later (2010s), a high forest of hardwoods had grown up, and the forest coverage at the end of 2023 was estimated to have recovered to 321 TP3T, 2.4 times higher than at the beginning of the 19th century.
The author says, "The challenge for forestry globally is to restore forests as close as possible to their original ecosystems. "The challenge for forestry worldwide is to return to the potential natural vegetation and climate of each region and restore forests as close as possible to their original ecosystems, rather than to nature that has been altered by the needs of human society," he says. It is fair to say that France has led the way in this endeavor.
While looking sideways at neighboring Germany's efforts to improve forestry productivity through large-scale, simultaneous, simple forestry of coniferous trees, France finally decided not to go in the same direction. The root of this is said to be the concept of the right tree in the right place and the fact that the French originally had special feelings toward broadleaf trees. This point is discussed in the second part of this report. (Kotaro Nagasawa, Director, Platinum Network)
■Related Sites
France, the Land of Broad-leaved Trees (Tsukiji Shokan)
