Tronc commun • La 27e Région

Context

Dramatically highlighted in recent years by the increase in large-scale summer wildfires, citizens' movements against clear-cutting and recurring conflicts over land use, the need to better value and preserve forests appears to be not only an ecological necessity but also a cultural, social and democratic one. How can we manage forests in a more collective manner to better protect them? The ambition to adopt new forest management practices faces challenges on the ground, including the difficulty of broadening the range of stakeholders involved, the context of urgency and rapid transformation of forests, the multitude of private interests at stake, and the conflicting priorities of economic actors and campaigners, amongst other factors. Whilst the 'multifunctional' management of forests is a shared objective in France, enshrined in the French forest code, putting this idea into practice is complex.

Tronc commun aims to explore new modes and institutions for forest management that enable the diversity of stakeholders to be involved in a more systemic way.

Approach

Sharing experiences and testing new forms of forest governance

This 16-month action research project aims to bring together, with a core group of public stakeholders (Regional Nature Parks, local authorities, etc.), the experiences and ongoing reflections across various territories regarding forest governance, in order to draw collective lessons and identify specific challenges. The study will also examine innovative approaches to natural resource governance developed elsewhere in France or Europe, with a view to identifying potential avenues for new levers of action. A second phase will involve, in collaboration with partner territories, designing and conducting experimentations of specific procedures and mechanisms to pave the way for a more collective and multifunctional approach to forest management.

Approaching new approaches to forest management ‘in common'

The programme will be documented on an ongoing basis, with a view to demonstrating a systemic and sustainable approach to forest management that can be shared and scaled up across the various networks involved in this issue (civil society and/or activist networks, local authorities, environmental organisations, etc.). The aim will also be to bring together a community of stakeholders (both public and private) interested in alternative forms of forest governance. This community will be involved in jointly developing the programme’s curriculum.

Partners

Partenaires du programme

Le programme est soutenu par le Ministère de la Transition Écologique et de la Cohésion des territoires et l’ADEME dans le cadre de l’appel à communs 2023.

A shared approach

A streamlined, practical support framework focused on project implementation, designed to enable participants to learn from one another, draw inspiration from elsewhere, and then collectively develop scenarios for new management approaches. The next step will be for each region to translate these into pilot schemes involving tangible elements (bodies, contracts, etc.) to be implemented locally, tailored to the specific challenges of that region and the context of its organisation.

Outputs

All the deliverables are designed to promote a systemic and sustainable approach to forest management, which can be shared and rolled out more widely across the various networks involved.