Senator Jean Pierre Vogel, special rapporteur on the budget for the ‘Civil Security’ programme, presented the conclusions of his fact-finding report on the fight against forest fires in France.
Whilst France is the fourth most forested country in the European Union, with nearly a third of its territory covered by forests, the area of forest affected by fires has decreased over recent decades, from an annual average of 46,000 hectares over the last forty years to 11,800 hectares over the last decade.
However, as Jean Pierre Vogel points out, “ this area is still larger than that of Paris "and the risk remains very real, with more than 17,000 hectares having been ravaged by the flames this year". Above all, in the medium term, this risk is likely to worsen as a result of global warming, which is highly likely to lead to an expansion in the geographical scope and duration of forest fires. “ A third of our forests are currently at risk of fire, but by 2060, more than half of the current forest area could be at risk ”, the senator continued. “ Added to this are the trends of agricultural abandonment and increasing urbanisation in forested areas, which are making our region increasingly vulnerable. ”
Whilst the prevention policy appears to be working well at present, certain shortcomings must be addressed immediately. Among his recommendations, the senator urges local authorities to continue their efforts to raise awareness of the importance of brush-clearing, which is compulsory for landowners in high-risk areas but is not being adequately enforced. Furthermore, the special rapporteur emphasises that “ There is also a need for better identification of costs, both those arising from fire damage and those associated with prevention measures. A figure of over 500 million euros spent on fighting and preventing forest fires is often cited, but this is a very rough estimate made in 2009. »
Above all, Jean Pierre Vogel believes it is essential to safeguard the future of the resources used in the fight against : “In France, we have a specific and particularly effective fire-fighting strategy, which involves prioritising the attack on fires in their early stages, with a massive deployment of ground and air resources within ten minutes of the fire breaking out.”. To this end, France has a fleet of 25 aircraft, at an annual cost of around 86 million euros. Although high, efforts are being made to optimise these costs, and they enable essential missions to be carried out, such as armed aerial surveillance (GAAr), which involves preventive flyovers of forests during the summer by certain aircraft loaded with water or fire retardant, such as the Dash. Six new aircraft of this type will replace the Trackers by 2023, enabling greater coverage of the territory, which appears satisfactory given the increasing risk.
According to the Special Rapporteur, “ The main concerns relate to our Canadair aircraft, whose ageing is leading to reduced availability and additional maintenance costs ". A fleet renewal has therefore been under consideration since 2016, but requires the establishment of a joint procurement programme at European level, the timetable for which remains uncertain. The senator therefore recommends speeding up negotiations with other European countries and considering an earlier delivery of the Dash aircraft already on order, in order to guard against a potential capacity shortfall.Finally, attention must also be paid to ground-based resources, particularly those of the departmental fire and rescue services (SDIS) in the northern half of the country, which will require their fire-fighting equipment to be upgraded.