Les forêts

Commissariat général au développement durableDec 19, 2025

La forêt française métropolitaine s’étend sur 17,5 millions d’hectares soit près du tiers du territoire métropolitain. C’est la quatrième en surface au niveau européen derrière la Suède, la Finlande et l’Espagne. Elle est aux trois quarts privée et se concentre principalement dans la moitié sud et la partie est du pays.

Metropolitan French forests cover 17.5 million hectares, nearly a third of the metropolitan territory. It is fourth in size across Europe, behind Sweden, Finland and Spain. It is three-quarters privately owned and concentrated mainly in the southern half and eastern part of the country.

3 chapters

What do forests represent in France?
Forest distribution and management
• Situated largely in plains and hills where broadleaf trees dominate, plantation areas have remained stable since 1980 at around 13% of metropolitan France's forest. 95% of public forests and 31% of private forests have a sustainable management plan, enabling monitoring of different aspects of forest management. France also has more than 9 million hectares of overseas forests, mostly tropical, diverse and rich in biodiversity, primarily in Guiana. •
Production forests
Forest soils covered by production forests occupy 15.9 million hectares in 2015, representing 28% of metropolitan France's surface area. Forest soils covered by production forests occupy 15.9 million hectares in 2015, representing 28% of metropolitan France's surface area. Production forests are now considered to represent 90% of forests in most French regions.
A precious source of goods and services
Ecological and climate role
• The forest is an environment that helps meet our needs. Forests provide spaces for relaxation. They protect ecosystems and biodiversity, and combat climate change. Forests are the planet's largest carbon sink, meaning they absorb more gas than they release, thus limiting the greenhouse effect. In 2022, forests captured 27.6 million tonnes of CO₂, equivalent to more than 3 million times driving around the Earth in a combustion engine car. The total carbon stored in French forests is estimated at 1.3 billion tonnes, equivalent to Japan's annual CO₂ emissions, the world's fifth-largest emitter.
Economic value and leisure
With 700 million visits to forests in 2021, the economic value of forest recreation in France is 13 to 45 billion euros. This estimate far exceeds the 3 billion euros generated annually by timber sales.
Forests under threat
Water deficit and fires
• Metropolitan and overseas forests face threats from climate change. From 2013 to 2023, an average of 9,000 hectares of forest burned annually, slightly less than Paris's area within the ringroad. One quarter of French forest species, or 4.1 million hectares, experience water deficits linked to Mediterranean climate or poor soil water reserves. This affects three quarters of the Mediterranean ecological region. Its soils are particularly exposed to erosion from summer and autumn fires. Dry-region forests are also found in Corsica, along the Atlantic coast (Southwest), in the Causses, the eastern Pyrenees, southern Alps and Jura, and on Burgundy's plateaus.
Wetland areas
Conversely, excess soil water from riverside or groundwater is favorable to species adapted to wetlands. Forest stands developing under these conditions are particularly productive at 6.4 cubic meters per hectare annually. They occupy 0.8 million hectares, or 5% of metropolitan France's forest.
Forest area change
Although forests face global threats, with an average annual loss of 6 million hectares between 1990 and 2021, metropolitan forest area has grown since the end of the French Revolution. Forest expanded from 14.4 million hectares in 1990 to 17.5 million hectares in 2024, representing 31% of France's total area.

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