The call of the forest

It was his last great dream: to find space in Europe to resurface a continuous and natural forest massif which would become a lung of biodiversity and ecological resilience. French botanist Francis Hallé, who died on December 31 at the age of 87, knew forests well. In particular the gigantic tropical massifs of Africa and Asia, these so-called primary forests which are essential reservoirs of biodiversity. The scientist became famous thanks to the development of the summit raft, a type of airship that allows you to land on the canopy of tropical forests.

Between 1986 and 2003, he led several missions to study, with many other specialists, the biological diversity of this ecosystem, which until then had been very inaccessible. Passionate about the architecture of plants, Francis Hallé has painted the portrait of numerous trees and revealed their immense capacities for biological exchange. From 2019, he began to dream of reconstituting a primary forest in Europe, which would have to extend over at least nearly 70,000 ha to be viable. The man did not find the right site before passing away. Others will continue his project. Then, it will take at least seven centuries for the massif to return to a natural state, according to Hallé. A crazy challenge, therefore essential.