Can firewood be gathered in forests to heat French homes?

Reader Question: Our second home uses a wood-burning stove. We are adjacent to a forest that we do not think is privately owned. Can we use wood from the forest for our home, even if only dead wood and branches?

The collection of dead wood and branches from the forest floor is forbidden from any forested area (including public land), except for ones that you own or for which you have affouage (wood collection) rights.

This is because dead wood is considered important for the natural ecosystem, which should not be disturbed.

However, you can apply for affouage rights.

How can I apply for wood collection rights in France?

The concept of affouage – the right of people to cut down trees in public forests – dates back to the Middle Ages in France, and still exists today. 

Rather than the local nobility, the right is now granted by the Office national des forêts (ONF) which manages France’s public forests, and the local mairie.

As a first step, you should ask the mairie about the status of the forest, by referring to the location of the forest on your commune’s cadastre.

Many forests are privately owned, and even if publicly owned, some areas are limited to industrial use of the wood, depending on the types of trees found there.

Read more: Explainer: the rules for collecting wood from forests in France?

If it is publicly owned and not set aside for industrial use, the mairie will tell you how to apply for affouage rights to a particular part of the forest. 

This will grant you and your household the exclusive right to not only take wood from the area, but to cut down certain trees, which are typically marked out for you with spray paint.

You will need to pay an affouagère tax, which is usually very low compared to the value of the wood, costing €15 or less in some places.

However, you will need to chop the trees down and manage transport and storage yourself.