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Planting and conserving wild trees and hedgerows
France
Planting and conserving wild trees and hedgerows
Project leader
Duration of the partnership
2020 - 2025
Location
France
The Project and its Challenges
In hedged farmland, on the fields’ borders, wild trees and hedgerows serve as formidable wildlife corridors, acting as natural barriers to soil erosion and places of refuge for birds, insects and small mammals. Despite being true allies in the fight against climate change, 70% of hedgerows have disappeared under the pressure of intensive farming in France since 1950.
AFAC-Agroforesteries (Association Française Arbres Champêtres et Agroforesteries — the French association for wild trees and agroforestry) was formed ten years ago to protect and conserve wild trees and hedgerows. As the first French network of its kind, the association comprises more than 200 field operators and has already helped plant millions of trees.
Despite this, much work remains to be done, because we are still losing 11,500km of hedgerow every year! Current planting efforts need to be accelerated tenfold in order to guarantee the survival of wild trees and all the benefits they bring us.
But why a tree fund?
To meet this need to scale up, AFAC-Agroforesteries created the Fonds pour l’Arbre (Tree Fund) in 2020, with the support of a group of patrons, including the MDM Foundation.
Its mission: Increase funding for planting and conserving wild trees and hedgerows. The Fonds pour l’Arbre has therefore pledged to:
- Maintain the existing 750,000km of hedgerow and 770,000 hectares of forest.
- Plant an additional 750,000km of hedgerow by 2050 and 3 million hectares of intra-plot agroforestry.
- Accelerate planting efforts tenfold year-on-year, from 2500km to 25,000km of hedgerow planted.
The financial support from the Maisons du Monde Foundation has contributed to:
- The very creation of the Fonds pour l’Arbre in 2020, thanks to an alliance of patrons, with the Fondation Yves Rocher (Yves Rocher Foundation) and Fondation Nature & Découvertes (Nature & Découvertes Foundation) among others.
- The fund’s contributions over the last three years and for the next three years to funding planting campaigns throughout France.
Maisons du Monde customers themselves also contributed to the Fonds pour l’Arbre, with more than €64,000 raised and more than 650,000 donations made via the ARRONDI en caisse (Rounding up at the till) scheme from August to October 2020!
The Beneficiaries
The Fonds pour l’Arbre is dedicated to supporting all field operators who want to plant trees, relying on the AFAC-Agroforesteries network of more than 200 members. From municipal bodies, regional nature parks and associations dedicated to tree planting, to farmers and individuals, the association brings together a wide range of professionals driven by the belief that wild trees are a catalyst for ecological and energy transitions, both for agriculture and for rural areas.
The project benefits
In addition to increasing its capacity for private fundraising, the Fonds pour l’Arbre aims to harmonise and formalise grassroots initiatives to boost their impact. It will also aim to:
- Implement a national planting plan and provide tools to all associated stakeholders.
- Weigh in on public policy discussions and advocate for the conservation of existing wild trees and hedgerows.
Project leader The Fonds pour l'Arbre
The Fonds pour l’Arbre aims to help conserve and protect biodiversity in rural areas, improve the ecological condition of reserves and waterways, achieve carbon neutrality, preserve the quality of rural landscapes, reduce the use of plant protection products, and mitigate the impacts of climate change by supporting activities to conserve and plant wild trees and hedgerows in France.
Created in 2020 by AFAC-Agroforesteries, its goal is to expand the capacity to support local hedgerow protection projects, raise public awareness of the pivotal ecological role played by wild trees and hedgerows, and contribute to the French agro-ecological transition through the protection of hedgerows.
Website
Deforestation in France doesn’t affect forests, it affects our countryside hedgerows.
Hedgerows are crucial for biodiversity, climate, water and soil, but we are losing 11,500km of hedgerow every year. The Fonds pour l’Arbre’s mission is to foster efforts to plant and conserve hedgerowsalongside farmers and municipal bodies in France, thanks to key operators who ensure the quality and sustainability of new hedgerows.
Sylvie Monier President of the Fonds pour l'Arbre