Ancient forest statistics provide centennial perspective over the status and dynamics of forest area in France

Abstract

Key message: Centenary forest statistics informing major attributes of French forests were digitized, checked for consistency, and used to infer forest dynamics. Comparison to forest inventory data highlights increases in forest area and tree diversity, and substantial maturation of forests. Dataset access athttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3739458 Context: The history of European forest dynamic remains fragmental. In France, the Daubrée statistics (1908) and agricultural statistics (1892, 1929) formed fundamental material to fill this gap. Aims: Release, test, and summarize the digitalized dataset. Analyze long-term forest changes in forest area, composition, and structure. Methods: Primary data on forest area across NUTS-3 geographic units, split by forest management and ownership categories and dominating tree species (Daubrée), were digitized and cross-compared. Centennial changes in forest attributes were assessed from modern forest inventory data. Results: Cross-comparison revealed: (1) strong temporal consistency in forest changes over time, (2) systematic and interpretable biases in ownership/management categories between Daubrée and agricultural statistics. Strong shift from coppices to high forests, increased prevalence of private ownership, and constant proportion of broadleaf- and conifer-dominated forests were highlighted, with increased tree species diversity at country scale. Conclusion: Ancient statistics are shown to play a major role in retrospective land-use and forest policy analysis.