LFI deputies point to « government management »

LFI deputies believe that there is a “collective responsibility” for the forest fires ravaging Europe and beyond, but also point to “government management” which has favored monocultures, and demand “forest planning”.

« The increase in the risk of fire is linked to climate change » and « the government has been condemned twice for climate inaction », recalled this Tuesday the boss of the LFI group Mathilde Panot and the deputy Hendrik Davi in ​​front of the press.

Bill for the protection of forests

Certainly there can be an « individual fault of the one who sets the fire » but « there are droughts and stands (forests) which cause it to spread », explained the latter, new deputy and until then director research in forest ecology.

The parliamentarians presented their bill « aiming to strengthen the resilience of forests to the effects of climate change ».

It would be a question of conditioning public aid on greater diversity of plantations, of safeguarding the staff of the National Forestry Office at their 1999 level, and even that the State finance a public research plan on the resilience of forests .

Already in 2020, LFI deputies had tabled a bill to limit clear cuts in French forests, that is to say the felling of all the trees on a plot, seen as the symbol of a « short-term management » and anti-ecological.

On July 20 on the site of the giant forest fires of La Teste-de-Buch in Gironde, Emmanuel Macron announced « a major national project to be able to replant this forest ».

Western Europe faced a historic drought in July and two heat waves in barely a month, during which fires ravaged forests in Gironde, Spain and Greece.

A third episode of summer heat wave began Monday in the south-east of France and should extend to most of the country.