Le réseau Natura 2000 : un défi pour la gestion multifonctionnelle des forêts

Sustainable forest management and the implementation of the European ecological network Natura 2000 are two different approaches to managing natural environments with their own objectives but should be amenable to being reconciled. Both have a multiple use approach to space and they can reach common ground in terms of the objective of sustainable forestry that reconciles production of a resource with achieving a satisfactory ecological state. However, in the Natura 2000 network of sites, achieving a satisfactory state of conservation is a duty to achieve a given result which compels foresters to pay significantly more attention to biodiversity considerations in the various silvicultural planning documents, which are a priori suitable tools, and then to concentrate on implementing management measures. The goal of “favourable conservation status” is complex and difficult to characterise. Evaluation must be performed both at the scale of the site and of the biogeographic area. Indeed, the ecological functionality of forest habitats (which incorporate “favourable conservation status” criteria) and the effects of climate change of forests cannot be adequately taken on board without a dynamic vision of the network of sites. While some actions that favour biodiversity are “easily” reconciled with forest output objectives, others are more demanding. Drawing these two policies together may in those cases be achieved by a continuum of solutions and requires technical or financial support for local players. On sites where the stakes are high, as illustrated by the case of the Compiegne forest, forest management furthermore requires intensified and ongoing consultations to ensure that it is socially acceptable. In a rapidly changing society which finds it difficult to reconcile production and protection objectives, foresters must adopt new attitudes to support the policy choice that, without excluding appropriate use of the status of protected area, posits multiple-use management as still the best means for managing the Natura 2000 network that includes 18% of French forests.