Question 18053 — woods and forests

Summary

Mr. Hervé Saulignac draws the attention of the Minister of Agriculture and Food to the decision taken by the National Forestry Office (ONF) to collect, from July 1, 2019, revenues from sales of wood from municipal forests. Until now, the 11,000 forest municipalities in France collected directly the proceeds from the sale of public wood from which the ONF took a percentage. As of July 2019, the ONF will collect timber sales directly and must, within three months, return the money to the forest municipalities, taking a percentage along with an increase in management costs. This decision comes after a series of measures taken by the ONF and the State unilaterally creating points of tension with forestry municipalities, such as the freezing of 145 positions in 2018 and the elimination of 250 positions in 2019. For several months, elected officials have contested the process and the very basis of the collection of revenue by the ONF. This decision undermines their prerogatives within the framework of the free administration of communities. Elected officials feel disowned in favor of purely financial considerations. Furthermore, if the transfer of revenues will affect the treasuries of local authorities, it will not consolidate for as much lastingly as that of the ONF. More broadly, the ONF is going through a period of deep economic and social crisis. With the price of wood falling for around thirty years, the Office is accumulating debts and has a deficit of around 300 million euros. “Short-term” strategies such as the collection of timber revenues can relieve ailing cash flow but do not in any way resolve the difficulties. structural problems that the Office encounters. Aware of these issues, the National Federation of Forestry Municipalities has initiated a reflection on the overhaul of the public forest management model. The conclusions should be delivered at the end of March 2019. He asks him, in this context, to reconsider the decision to collect revenues from sales of wood from municipal forests for the benefit of the ONF.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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