Heated debate over future of forests

Firefighters battling a large fire at Chiberta forest in Anglet, southwestern France, in July 2020. French lawmakers have voted to ban smoking in all forests and woods during the fire season, part of a series of proposed measures to tackle growing destruction and dangers from climate change-related blazes. — AP

THE scented stands of pine trees stretching along France’s southwestern Atlantic coastline were reduced to charred stumps and stacks of blackened timber by the massive fires that ravaged the tourist hotspots of the Landes forest last summer.

In July and August 2022, more than 30,000ha of forest went up in smoke – a record since mega-fires hit the region in 1949. The scars in the local community run as deep as those on the landscape.