In 2020, COAL will be a partner of the Festival des Forêts en Île-de-France

The forest is a party! On the first weekend of October, FIBois Île-de-France, the Ile-de-France forestry industry’s interprofessional organization, is organizing the first edition of the Festival des Forêts en Île-de-France. Come and discover the multifunctionality of your region’s forests through a program rich in diversity!

On the program, in collaboration with COAL, an original installation by the artist Sara Favriau in the forest of Fontainebleau. Starting from a forest landscape strongly affected by repeated droughts, she sculpts a work from the existing, using dead or dying standing trees. The work will be revealed on the occasion of the Festival, and will continue to live afterwards, to the rhythm of the forest…

The festival will open on October 2 with an evening dedicated to the Tribunal for Future Generations. This great participative theatrical debate organized in partnership with Usbek et Rica will focus on a controversial question: “Does cutting down trees destroy the forest?

Experts from the industry and the environment will exchange ideas during the evening in order to provide answers to recurrent questions: Is cutting down a tree an anti-ecological act? Does the use of wood, an ecological product par excellence, whether for materials or energy, justify cutting down trees?
Four witnesses will debate during this evening:
– Michel Béal, Director of the ONF Île-de-France Ouest Agency
– François-Xavier Drouet, French director (Le Temps des Forêts), director of photography and screenwriter
– Valérie Cabanes, International Lawyer, environmentalist and essayist
– Emmanuelle Cosse, Regional Councillor of Île-de-France and former Minister of Housing

The festival will continue during the day of October 3, in the Ile-de-France forests where three themes will be explored:

– Visits and discoveries of the forest ecosystem, with forest managers in private and public forests. These visits will allow a better understanding of the challenges of silvicultural management and the role of forest ecosystems, particularly in the fight against climate change.
– Presentation of the know-how and trades of the forestry and wood industry with visits to wood transformation workshops and meetings with carpenters, sculptors and other professionals who will allow you to discover these passionate trades as well as to make the link between the sustainable management of forests and the production of environmentally friendly goods.
– Cultural and artistic programs with workshops and artistic performances that will allow you to escape and experience your outing in the forest in a different way, using your senses and discovering new experiences.

All Festival activities are free and open to all.
All information and registrations can be found on festival-des-forets-en-ile-de-france

Image credit: © Sara Favriau