Sad finding. Thousands of kilometers of hedges still disappear each year from the French agricultural landscape and planting programs remain marginal in the face of the phenomenon. “Since 1950, 70% of hedgerows have disappeared from French bocages”, or about 1.4 million kilometers, is noted in this report from the General Council for Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas (CGAAER) , dependent on the Ministry of Agriculture.
Far from being stopped, the movement has accelerated in recent years, according to this report which mentions an average annual loss of “23,571 km/year between 2017 and 2021”, against “10,400 km/year between 2006 and 2014”. Opposite, the “planting policy” makes it possible to create “about 3,000 km” of hedges per year. “If the emphasis is often placed on the creation of new hedges, it is above all necessary to better protect the existing linear”, conclude the authors.
Mechanization of agriculture
The causes of this disappearance are known: the French countryside was largely transformed after the Second World War under the effect of the “consolidation” of agricultural land and the mechanization of agriculture. The plots were grouped together and the hedges uprooted to form larger fields accessible to tractors.
Even today, according to the report, “trees often suffer from an outdated image, while more technological agriculture is developing, again made more complex by the presence of trees: automatic control of agricultural machinery, monitoring of crops by drones and satellites, etc. These biodiversity reserves, ramparts against soil erosion, are however also useful for agricultural yields.
Trees and hedges, a real solution
“Faced with increasingly intense and frequent climatic hazards, hedges and trees represent a real solution”, recall the authors, citing their “agronomic benefits” (windbreak effect, shade for livestock, fight against erosion , shelter for pest predators, etc.) and “ecosystem services” (carbon storage, water regulation, preservation of biodiversity, etc.). Alas, “the farmer often perceives the hedge as a direct net expense linked to planting and maintenance, without seeing the benefits”, notes the report.
Referring to a “very worrying finding” Thursday in a tweet, the Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau indicates that “a consultation will be launched in the coming days” with the Secretary of State for Ecology, Bérangère Couillard, ” to build a “pact in favor of the hedge”.