France Creates Nine Biological Reserves, Protecting 157,000 More Hectares of Forest

France has quietly enlarged one of its most valuable natural assets: its protected forests. On June 11, 2026, the French government announced the creation of seven new biological reserves and the expansion of two existing ones, placing an additional 157,000 hectares of forest under strengthened protection. As reported by Euronews, the decision brings France’s national network of these reserves to 276 and ranks among the country’s largest single additions to strictly protected land in years. The reserves are overseen by the Office national des forêts (ONF), the public agency that manages France’s state forests, and in them the protection of forest biodiversity takes priority over logging and other uses.

The newly protected forests span strikingly different worlds. The overwhelming majority of the area — about 156,290 hectares, or roughly 99.5% — lies in a single stretch of tropical rainforest in French Guiana, France’s overseas territory on the northern coast of South America. The remaining reserves are far smaller, together covering under 1,000 hectares, but they safeguard a rich variety of mainland habitats, from mountain and lowland woods to Mediterranean forest. Most are classified as “strict” biological reserves, where human intervention is kept to an absolute minimum, alongside one “managed” reserve where limited, carefully targeted work is allowed to serve conservation goals.

“On June 11, 2026, the French government announced the creation of seven new biological reserves and the expansion of two existing ones, placing an additional 157,000 hectares of forest under strengthened protection.”

The expansion is one piece of a broader national commitment. It lifts the share of French territory under what the government calls “strong protection” — areas where damaging human activity is tightly restricted — to 6.43%, on the way to a target of 10% by 2030. France has pledged to bring a further 250,000 hectares of forest under protection by the end of the decade, with 180,000 of those hectares earmarked for French Guiana. “In concrete terms, this translates into less pressure on natural environments and stronger protection for species and habitats,” said Monique Barbut, France’s minister for ecological transition. The effort feeds directly into the global “30x30” goal of protecting 30% of the planet’s land and sea by 2030.

What makes biological reserves special is what they allow forests to do: simply grow old. In these areas, ancient trees are left standing, fallen trunks are left to decay where they lie, and the slow, messy rhythms of a wild forest — rot, regeneration and the return of rare fungi, insects and birds — can unfold without interruption. Old-growth and undisturbed forests store vast amounts of carbon and shelter species that cannot survive in a working woodland. At a time when forest protections are being loosened in some parts of the world, France’s choice to set aside more room for nature is a welcome reminder that governments can still take the long view — letting a forest be a forest, for its own sake and for the generations who will one day walk beneath its canopy.