In Saint-Laurent-de-Cerdans, forty owners of wooded parcels turned out on Tuesday, November 3 for an information meeting on forest management, held under the aegis of Fransylva. The crowd was large enough that the town hall relocated the session to the salle des mariages, a logistical shift that itself signaled the level of local interest in how the forest is actually maintained and put to work.
Bruno Mariton, coordinator of the Syndicat des propriétaires forestiers privés des Pyrénées-Orientales, animated the meeting, using projections to walk attendees through the main points. Éloi Bellier, a forestier and éleveur who serves as premier adjoint at the Montbolo town hall and has led the organization as its new president since May, set out Fransylva’s remit as a professional body: representing and defending owners, and informing and training them. Because the forest concerns everyone, he said, the syndicat plays an important role in vulgarisation, which is why such meetings matter. “La forêt nous rassemble et nous allons y arriver,” he told the room, adding that coming together is necessary to find solutions in common.
Additional reference context is available at https://www.lindependant.fr/2026/11/06/saint-laurent-de-cerdans-forte-affluence-a-la-reunion-sur-lavenir-et-la-gestion-des-forets-13639408.php.
The operational picture he sketched was sobering. Only 15 percent of woodland in the département is exploited, which raises the risk of fire and of diseases to which the wood is more sensitive. He underlined the interest for exploitants in joining the syndicat and called on volunteers to help with the work. Mayor Éric Donzé, who excused his adjoints because they were held at a session of the Communauté des communes, welcomed the very strong participation and reminded those present that the village is itself an important forest owner. “Il est opportun et important d’organiser cette réunion. Les aléas climatiques, même si Saint-Laurent ne s’est pas trouvé dans le couloir impliqué, ont provoqué des dégâts. La forêt est un atout, mais aussi un danger, il faut en prendre soin,” he said.
Attention then turned to the practical side of turning neglected woodland into working output. Yves Martin-Chave, the organization’s treasurer, is an expert-comptable who has been based in Saint-Laurent for four years as an exploitant forestier, sylviculteur and entrepreneur at the Mas Forestier, at the Pla del Mané. He traced his path to the creation of the Fabrique forestière in June 2026, an association providing support services for forest exploitation, and explained at length how abandoned forests can be transformed into bois débité and piquets, making exploitation profitable.
Meanwhile, owners were pointed toward hands-on assistance. Léa Romeu, a technicienne forestière territoriale at the Centre régional de la propriété forestière d’Occitanie (CRPF), followed Martin-Chave. She accompanies owners in managing their woods, takes part in information meetings and even travels on site to help. The syndicat currently counts two hundred thirty members, a figure likely to grow.
Participants followed the informal, pedagogical session closely, and the range of questions was considerable. Discussions continued afterward at the convivial apéritif that closed the meeting, a fitting end for an evening devoted to how the local forest heritage can actually be cared for and put to work. Whether the syndicat’s membership growth translates into more of that 15 percent of exploited woodland moving into active management remains the open question for the months ahead.