The economic impact of the wildfires sweeping through south-western France is expected to exceed \u20ac500 million, with the country's forestry sector facing one of its largest timber salvage operations in recent years. More than 45,000 hectares have burned across Gironde and Landes within a week, the vast majority covered by productive forest, leaving millions of tonnes of damaged timber that will have to be harvested before its commercial value deteriorates.<\/p>\n
Initial estimates suggest that between 4 and 4.5 million tonnes of timber have been affected by the fires. If confirmed, the volume would represent roughly half of the annual harvest from the Landes de Gascogne forest, Europe's largest managed maritime pine forest and one of France's most important sources of raw material for the sawmilling, wood panel and pulp industries.<\/p>\n
According to Alliance For\u00eat Bois, France's largest forestry cooperative, the financial losses for forest owners and the wider wood sector could reach \u20ac500-600 million, based on current estimates of the burned area. The organisation cautions that the full extent of the damage will only become clear once firefighting operations have ended and detailed field inspections begin.<\/p>\n
Large-scale salvage logging expected this autumn<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The immediate priority after the fires will be recovering as much commercially usable timber as possible.<\/p>\n Harvesting operations could begin as early as October, when access to the affected areas becomes possible. Salvage logging will be essential not only to recover economic value but also to reduce the risk of insect attacks, fungal degradation and further deterioration of fire-damaged stands.<\/p>\n Not all burned timber is expected to be lost. Researchers note that the commercial impact will depend on fire intensity and how long trees remain standing before harvesting. Experience from the 2022 Landes wildfires showed that timber from some burned stands remained suitable for industrial processing where flames primarily affected undergrowth while leaving tree stems largely intact. Early observations from this year's fires, however, suggest more severe burn intensity in several areas, increasing the likelihood of higher timber losses than four years ago.<\/p>\n A more difficult market than four years ago<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The commercial challenge does not end once the fires are extinguished.<\/p>\n While salvage operations are expected to recover part of the damaged timber, its market value will depend heavily on demand conditions across Europe's wood products industry. Those conditions are markedly weaker than during the major Landes wildfires of 2022.<\/p>\n According to St\u00e9phane Vieban, President of Alliance For\u00eat Bois, the intensity of this year's fires also appears greater than four years ago.<\/p>\n \"Not all of the timber will necessarily be lost, but the initial assessments suggest this fire was more intense than in 2022, meaning the damage is likely to be more severe.\"<\/em><\/p>\n Even timber that remains technically suitable for processing may generate lower returns than it did four years ago.<\/p>\n Vieban noted that the economic environment has changed significantly since the 2022 wildfires, when demand for wood products remained relatively strong and the market was able to absorb large volumes of salvaged timber under favourable pricing conditions.<\/p>\n \"In 2022, timber values remained relatively good because the economic environment was very favourable. That is clearly no longer the case today.\"<\/em><\/p>\n The weaker business climate has already affected investment decisions throughout the French wood products industry. One of the most visible examples came earlier this year when Swiss Krono abandoned plans to build a new wood panel plant in Lot-et-Garonne, underlining the difficult conditions facing manufacturers despite the long-term need for additional processing capacity.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The economic impact of the wildfires sweeping through south-western France is expected to exceed \u20ac500 million, with the country’s forestry sector facing one of its largest timber salvage operations in recent years.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":99469,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n