NATURALNESS STEP BY STEP. EVOLUTION OF OPINIONS AND PRACTICES ABOUT AN EMERGING NOTION

While the forest represents nature inFrench people’s minds, the notion of naturalness is far less familiar to them and appears toberelated to“the wild”. However, certain signals show that these representations are evolving: deadwood is now tolerated, and even promoted for its ecological relevance byforesters aswell as by the general public; spaces devoted to naturalness, such asintegral biological reserves, are more and more numerous inmainland France. However, the reasons for this support remain ambivalent. Some foresters and forest users doittoavoid being accused of environmental negligence, while others are really convinced of the interest of leaving spaces unmanaged for the sake of biodiversity and of forest resilience toclimate change. In both cases, naturalness is gradually and willy-nilly regaining importance inour forest ecosystems and our representations offorests. ©AgroParisTech, 2021.