18 THE ROLE OF FORESTS 



all bear the same evidence: Palestine, Assyria, Arabia, Greece, Tunisia, 

 Algeria, Italy, Spain, Persia, Sardinia, Dalmatia. To-day England is 

 the only virile Great Power without extensive forests; what she has are in 

 her colonies. It appears that decadence goes hand in .hand with de- 

 forestation. Which is the foundation stone of a nation's decline? Is the 

 sequence decadence-deforestation or deforestation-decadence? Or is de- 

 forestation simply a general lack of foresight coupled with poor forest man- 

 agement? 



Fundamental Causes. What is the fundamental cause of deforesta- 

 tion? According to Regnault: 



" It is well to seek the causes. They are of various kinds. The most important is 

 civilization itself. Civilization increases the sale value of wood, and provides the means 

 of transport, without which sales would be very limited. It awakes greed in the mind 

 of the landowner and at the same time allows him to satisfy his greed. Thus the barest 

 countries are always the seats of the oldest civilizations. Certainly, when the landowner 

 finds it to his interest to plant, he does not hesitate to do so. Thus the truffle industry 

 has caused the plantation of more than 148,000 acres of oak in the Vaucluse; and re- 

 cently the oil trade has caused the plantation of an immense olive forest round Sfax in 

 Tunis. But such cases are quite exceptional. 



"The cutting of trees is a source of immediate profit, but it entails later a great dimi- 

 nution of revenues. Hence reboisement meets with great difficulties, not only in the 

 want of money, but in the hostility of the inhabitants. These people were originally 

 hunters, woodsmen, petty cultivators, but especially herdsmen, enjoying rich pastures 

 and large herds of cattle. The destruction of the forest forces them to change their liveli- 

 hood. They become shepherds and goatherds, for sheep and goats are the only animals 

 which can exist on the soil when it has become impoverished. These animals live on 

 young shoots and buds, and prevent the forest from growing again. The shepherds 

 themselves oppose every attempt at reboisement, pulling up young trees, destroying 

 seedlings, etc., for they fear to lose their living. They even burn the forest in order to 

 obtain further areas, until the mountain disintegrates and their last resources are 

 swept away by landslides and erosion. 



"The political condition is of great importance. A strong government enforces respect 

 for the forests." 



Obligation of the State. Speaking of the deforestation in France 

 Regnault calls upon the State to do its duty : 3 



"While the State is thus so badly neglecting its duty, all the authors who have studied 

 the subject of deboisement are agreed that the State is the only possible source of salva- 

 tion. They wish to forbid all clearings by communes or by private persons, and to make 

 the private interest yield to the public good. A despotic government can indeed en- 

 force blind obedience on the part of its subjects, but in a republic, where every one is a 

 judge and critic of policy, the best laws are useless unless the citizens understand their 

 utility." 



After a careful study of the Loire watershed, Benardeau, then Conserva- 

 tor of Forests at Moulins (Allier), concluded as follows: 4 



3 La Foret, A. Jacquot, 1900. 



4 Correction de la Loire et de ses Affluents, F. Benardeau, deuxieme edition, 1906. 



