Clearing authorisation
Forest-clearing authorisation (Forest Code L.341-3)
Removing woodland requires a clearing authorisation under the French Forest Code (L.341-3), often with compensatory reforestation.
Clearing authorisation
Removing woodland requires a clearing authorisation under the French Forest Code (L.341-3), often with compensatory reforestation. ARKENOR prepares the file and integrates it with the wider ecological and impact assessment.
Scope
Clearing authorisation applies to land, not to trees.
French forestry law governs the change of use of wooded land, and the authorisation is required for the destruction of its forest state, not for felling as such. Managed woodland felled and replanted is forestry; woodland removed to build is clearing, and requires authorisation.
The distinction catches projects out because it does not depend on the quality or age of the woodland. Scrub that has regenerated on abandoned agricultural land can qualify, which is a frequent situation on peri-urban development sites.
Compensation
In kind, in area, or in payment, and it is not optional.
Authorisation is generally conditional on compensation: replanting elsewhere, works benefiting existing forest, or a payment to a dedicated fund. The compensation ratio can exceed one to one, which makes it a material cost line rather than an administrative fee.
The clearing file is examined alongside the impact assessment, and where the woodland hosts protected species, alongside a derogation file as well. Three procedures, one site, one timetable.
Sequencing
Three procedures, one timetable.
Clearing authorisation, impact assessment and protected-species derogation are examined by different authorities on different timetables, and a project needing all three cannot run them sequentially without losing a year. Running them in parallel requires the underlying survey work to serve all three, which is a decision taken when the surveys are commissioned rather than when the files are written.
The forestry compensation obligation is separate from ecological compensation and does not substitute for it. A project can owe both, for the same hectares.
Going further
Related pages.
Clearing authorisation rarely travels alone.
- Environmental impact assessment — examined in parallel
- Protected-species derogation — where the woodland hosts protected species
- Four-season surveys — establishing what the woodland supports
- Offsetting measures — ecological compensation, distinct from forestry compensation
- Green and blue network — woodland as a corridor
- Net Zero Land Take — the land-use constraint above it
- Working with land developers — peri-urban sites where this arises
- Ecological expertise — the full set of procedures
- Avoid-reduce-offset sequence — ecological compensation, distinct from forestry
- ARKENOR: environmental project management — running parallel procedures
Discuss your project
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