With all the news about increasing deforestation rates around the world, you might form the idea that losing forests is a common trend in all parts of the globe. However, that’s not necessarily true.
Four years ago, for example, France set up one of its newest regional natural parks – the Baronnies Provençales – an area spreading across 700 square miles in the country’s mountainous regions. With a mix of pine, oak, and beech, fully 79 percent of the park is covered by forest, and this share is growing. In fact, as the world worries about deforestation, the total area of forests in France is actually on the rise, with 31 percent of the country’s territory being covered by woodlands. In terms of area, France is the fourth most forested country in the EU, after Sweden, Finland, and Spain.
Since 1990, thanks to better protection as well as to a decline in farming, France’s overall wooded or forested areas have increased by nearly 7 percent. And France is far from being alone. Across the EU, between 1990 and 2015, the total forested and wooded area grew by nearly 35,000 square miles – an area roughly the size of Portugal.
