Conférence : La gestion forestière en Morvan - fin XIII à aujourd'hui , par V.Balland docteur en histoire et J. Cacot du laboratoire forestier du Mont Beuvray

"Dieback", "clear-cutting", "enresinement", "monoculture", "regeneration defects": these are the words that recur throughout the forestry conflict in the Morvan.
Regularly, in the local and national press, residents, activists, owners and foresters talk about the Morvan forest and the risk of a complete industrialisation of the sector. What if the use of these expressions in the Morvan had their roots in the distant past? What if the antagonisms experienced in the region since the 1950s acted like a spectre that awakens old wounds: those of a forest strongly marked by intensive forestry designed to supply a distant market?
Between the middle of the 16th century and the beginning of the 20th century, i.e. for almost three centuries, the beech-oak forests of the Morvan provided an abundance of firewood for the city of Paris. This economy created sharp contrasts in the social landscape between the big winners and the local farming population who worked for the Parisian supply.
In the forest, this exploitation has left a lasting mark on the landscape in the form of coppice producing standardised logs. This Parisian supply landscape replaced other forest facies present in the Middle Ages, which can be seen from a long-term historical study.
This glimpse into the past is being extended in particular through the Mont Beuvray Forestry Laboratory, which brings together several university partners in the heart of the Bibracte-Morvan des Sommets Grand Site de France area. It combines forestry experiments, local dialogue and fundamental research into the challenges of climate change. The results of this latter approach highlight the importance of heritage in the development of forest stands in the Morvan.

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