Domaine du Bois Landry in Champrond-en-Gâtine (Eure-et-Loir) is committed to preserving its carbon sinks and safeguarding its biodiversity.
Already very involved in the preservation of its ecosystem, this exceptional private forest is innovating to confront the impacts of climate change by valorizing the carbon sequestered by these thousands of oak trees.
Like the Chambord national domain in October, this Eurelian forest has joined forces with the start-up La Belle Forêt to generate carbon credits with a biodiversity impact for the benefit of companies engaged in their own transition.
In this forest, clear cutting which exposes the soil to thermal shock, wind, and light was abandoned twenty years ago, in favor of more sustainable management (continuous cover silviculture).
Only trees that have reached significant value are removed.
So no more idea of growing trees, Le Bois Landry lets the forest regenerate by itself.
“We are focusing on biodiversity, that’s where we should find the most value in a property like Bois Landry,” assures Bertrand Monthuir, partner manager of this forest.
Dead wood is left on the ground, and trees that provide shelter for animals or insects are preserved.
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For twenty years, the Domaine du Bois Landry forest with a surface area of 1,203 hectares will retain 490 hectares eligible for carbon credits.
It renounces cuts on 80% of the plots concerned.
The start-up La Belle Forêt is responsible for marketing the 13,415 tonnes of CO2 sequestered in the form of a biodiversity carbon credit for businesses.
“We make the services provided naturally by the forest commercial and we sell them to companies with a regulatory obligation to reduce their emissions as part of their CSR (corporate social responsibility)” explains Philippe Gourmain, founder and co-president of the start-up. up The Beautiful Forest.
The income generated will be reinvested in order to adapt wood to climate change by planting new species or strengthening actions undertaken for biodiversity.
“The highest rated forest in France”
The interest is to find an economic outlet for these carbon traps which mitigate climate change while 84.5% of European forest ecosystems are in an unfavorable conservation state.
The first private massif of Eure-et-Loir is at the forefront for the biodiversity score.
“We have around twenty criteria to judge the actions implemented by owners to safeguard biodiversity.
This makes it possible to discriminate between forests, and that of Bois Landry obtained 2.1 out of 3, which is remarkable.
On average the forests we evaluated are between 1.1 and 1.4.
To date, this is the best rating in France,” says Philippe Gourmain of the start-up La Belle Forêt.
And it is time to react to climate change, when a French person emits nine to ten tonnes of CO2 per year.
It remains to be seen whether foresters will commit to this path of ecological management.
Bertrand Monthuir, the managing partner of Bois Landry, knows it: among the 200 private foresters who own more than a thousand hectares in France, few think like him.
“As long as there is no valuation, we will not take the owners.
There, carbon goes hand in hand with biodiversity, that's what we like, because that's the challenge of having a forest system that works thanks to biodiversity.
» There is still a long way to go: the start-up La Belle Forêt offers carbon credits in 70 forests, or 30,000 hectares out of the 12.2 million hectares of private forests in France.