” That ? ! That’s pretty much the face I just made when I discovered this letter that a bailiff left in Canopée’s office. » In a video released in mid-September, Bruno Doucet, campaign director of Canopée forests vivants, describes the new complaint addressed to the association. The conflict between it and some companies in the forestry sector has just reached a new stage: the interprofessional association France Bois Forêt and twelve organizations demand the cancellation of the authorization granted by the Ministry of Ecological Transition to Canopée, in December 2023, for the protection of the environment.
These structures, which represent owners, businessmen, cooperatives, the cardboard industry, nurseries and even forestry municipalities, presented an appeal against the State at the end of August. “Look, there is no jurisprudence at the national level, it is not common for the approval of associations to be challenged”Alexandre Faro, Canopée’s lawyer, reacts.
“This is a first and great strategic error, agrees Arnaud Gossé, lawyer specialized in environmental law. It’s like Anticor [qui lutte contre la corruption] : attacking a recognized and expert association only serves to annoy everyone. » This unprecedented approach reveals the strong tensions around forestry issues and the inability of politics to chart a clear course for the future of the massifs that cover 30% of the metropolitan territory.
A young shoot with great influence
Created in 2018 by Sylvain Angerand, a forestry engineer with small, round, colorful glasses, Canopée is a young start. Their first battles – and their first victories – had to do with the exclusion of palm oil from biofuels and the traceability of imported soybeans. The association also stands out for addressing the issue of logging head-on: it denounces the effects of recovery plans that encourage cuts due to a lack of environmental criteria, advocates “let the forests grow old” and in favor of forestry models that respect the climate and biodiversity. Also in focus are regional forestry management plans, which govern landowner practices.
With its five and a half employees, its followers in green sweatshirts and its approximately 300,000 subscribers to its newsletter, Canopée has, in just a few years, acquired significant influence. It is the only French nature protection association specialized in the defense of forests, an issue that worries citizens and elected officials everywhere. In addition to the possibility of taking legal action, your approval It allows you to sit in certain bodies. “The attack on the sector shows that Canopée has become very powerful”confirms Daniel Perron, lawyer and forestry policy specialist. And therefore very irritating for the timber sector lobbies?
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