In 2022, France pledged to plant one billion trees over 10 years, but four years later, the country’s highest administrative court has cancelled the decree that funded the entire plan. On 15 July 2026, the Council of State ruled that the government’s subsidy framework was unlawful because ministers introduced the rules without first allowing the public to give their views.According to the official judgment published by Légifrance, Decree No. 2025-401, adopted on 2 May 2025, violated France’s Environmental Charter. The court said that state subsidies covering 40 per cent to 65 per cent of forest renewal costs have a major impact on commercial forestry, directly affecting biodiversity, soil health, and wildfire risks. Because the funding rules could significantly affect the environment, the public had a legal right to take part in consultations before the decree became law.
Legal procedure and NGO concerns
The case was brought by the environmental group Canopée. Although the Council of State cancelled the main funding decree, it rejected Canopée’s separate request to cancel a related administrative order because the organization filed that challenge after the legal deadline.Sylvain Angerand, director of Canopée, said the implementing order and its technical rules no longer have a proper legal basis. He argued that the government cannot simply restore the same system and instead needs to redesign its forestry strategy. The court, however, limited its decision to procedural issues and did not rule on the wider environmental arguments raised during the case.Subsidies provided under the 2025 rules had already supported forestry work across about 18,000 acres. The court noted that eight months of activity was too short to judge the full impact of the programme, but it ruled that the failure to consult the public made the decree legally invalid.
High losses among newly planted trees
The ruling comes as French forests face growing pressure from climate change. The national plan aimed to renew around 10 per cent of the country’s forests by 2032 using a mix of planting new saplings, encouraging natural regeneration, filling empty gaps, and thinning overcrowded woodland.However, planting large numbers of trees has not guaranteed healthy forests. In a review released in July 2026, France’s High Council for Climate reported that 21 per cent of forest plantations failed completely in 2025, mainly because of severe drought. It also found that eight per cent of surveyed standing trees showed serious canopy damage or clear signs of decline.Scientists have also warned about the risks of monoculture plantations. When a forest contains only one tree species with the same tolerance to heat, pests, diseases, and wildfires can spread much more quickly through the entire area.
Watchdogs call for stronger safeguards
Government oversight bodies had identified problems with France’s forestry funding long before the court’s decision. A 2024 report by France’s Court of Auditors found that earlier state aid often failed to support real climate adaptation. Auditors said grants were frequently used for low-value timber stands that were not actually declining, while requirements for species diversity remained weak. The review also found that earlier funding restored only 37,000 acres out of 148,000 acres of damaged public forest.The High Council for Climate repeated those concerns in its July 2026 report, urging the government to update its technical standards using the latest climate science. It called for stricter rules on seed selection, species diversity, clear-cutting methods, and soil protection. The council also recommended that public funding should be limited to forests facing confirmed environmental risks.
Creating a new funding system
Monique Barbut, France’s minister for ecological transition, must now prepare a new subsidy framework that meets both legal requirements and environmental goals. Environmental groups want future funding to focus on restoring burned or dying forests instead of supporting clear-cutting in healthy woodlands. That is expected to lead to difficult discussions between timber companies, private landowners, and environmental organizations.The government must now write a new legal framework that includes mandatory public consultation before forestry subsidies can restart. Whether the programme succeeds will depend on whether the new rules create stronger, more diverse forests that can survive future heatwaves, instead of simply meeting a target for the number of trees planted.
Debate continues over forestry practices and carbon storage
The court’s ruling comes as scientists continue to debate commercial forestry practices across Western Europe. Research by the French National Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE) suggests that clear-cutting healthy forests to plant uniform saplings temporarily reduces the soil’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide. Disturbing forest soils releases stored organic carbon into the atmosphere for several years before newly planted trees grow enough to balance those emissions.Many environmental scientists support natural regeneration, where existing trees produce seeds that grow into native saplings without large-scale planting. Data from the European Forestry Commission shows that naturally regenerated forests survive extreme drought better than nursery-grown saplings, whose roots often struggle to adjust to dry surface soils.International policies are also increasing pressure on France to change its subsidy rules. The European Union’s 2030 Biodiversity Strategy requires member states to protect remaining primary forests and avoid using public funding to encourage clear-cutting in biodiverse woodlands. As the French government prepares its required public consultation, forestry experts across Europe say public money should support continuous-cover forestry, which protects forest soils while maintaining long-term carbon storage in both public and private forests.
