The "forest creator" Baptiste Trény will plant more than 800 trees in Charente-Maritime

“Now everything will come out of the ground,” enthuses Baptiste Trény, the founder of Créateur de forêt.

This young company from Deux-Sèvres has just won its first bet in Charente-Maritime by securing 100% of the philanthropic funding for a new “biodiversity zone” in the town of Landrais.

Last year, this village of 730 inhabitants chose to entrust Baptiste Trény with a one-hectare wasteland with the ambition of seeing several hundred trees grow there and a future natural forest.

“It makes me want to plant trees everywhere”

Since then, a real environmental obligation (ORE) – a legal tool created in 2016, similar to an emphyteutic lease – has come to ratify this protected project for the next 99 years.

In other words: no deforestation can take place until the completion of this ERO.

“Thirty-four companies and around sixty individuals have financed the future plantings expected for next winter,” explains Baptiste Trény, who claims to have collected nearly 50,000 euros excluding tax since the campaign opened in February.

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These funds will notably enable it to acquire 834 trees of 36 different species.

The 30-year-old intends to rely on local nurserymen and will ensure the upkeep of this plot for the first five years.

Mayor of Landrais, Christelle Grasso is delighted with the success of this financing.

“I am very happy with this assessment and the participatory and democratic momentum.

This project will be truly collective and will involve schools and an agricultural college for the plantations.

It makes me want to plant trees everywhere, which we will do wherever we have the possibility, ”smiles the chosen one.

A partnership with the University of Poitiers will even result in naturalist monitoring of the site for 5 years, with a focus on the state of the soil and earthworms.

After leaving his old profession in a large Niortaise mutual, Baptiste Trény continues his adventure and leads a second project in Charente-Maritime in connection with the Rotary Club La Rochelle-Aunis.

This partnership could give birth to a new forest in Périgny where a municipal plot of 1.4 hectares has been made available and is currently looking for new financiers.