Des forêts pour l’eau potable : l’eau paiera ?

Faced with water quality issues in some agricultural areas, forests are considered valuable for the production of drinking water. Furthermore, foresters can enhance the protection of water resources — an excellent example of environmental service. Can the protection of drinking water be considered a full-fledged forestry activity? The purpose of this article is to review the development potential for foresters arising from this service, based on work conducted in private forests. Examining different aspects of services provided by forests, the article describes several methods for economic evaluation depending on whether the focus is simply on the role played by the existence of forests, forestry activities in favour of water or the naturalness of forest-sourced water. To develop water protection services by forests, the CNPF-IDF [National Forestry Centre/Forestry Development Institute] leads a working group on legal issues, whose goal is to devise and test a standard contract between foresters and freshwater utilities.