Sensibilis’haie is a project led by the National Federation of Hunters and co-financed by the French Biodiversity Office, which is dedicated to the promotion of diversified and well-adapted hedgerow planting and management in French municipalities. This initiative is part of the France Plan de Relance and serves as a tool for enhancing biodiversity while tightening the link between hunters, local communities, and habitat restoration.
Hedgerows are an important part of farmland ecosystems, they provide several ecological services, including refuges for species, climate change fighting, soil protection, and resources, such as wood and forage. However, France loses 11,500 km of hedgerows yearly, a decline with serious consequences for local biodiversity.
The Sensibilis’haie project is based on an educational and methodological guide that explains the importance of hedgerows and gives the tools to start with hedgerow planting and management. In collaboration with hunters, eco-citizen and educational work projects are organized to plant hedgerows and rows of field trees in rural areas.
In 2023, Sensibilis’haie completed a promising first planting season. More than 500 local authorities participated, organizing over 600 planting projects across 42 departments. This initiative raised awareness among more than 10,000 participants, including 7,000 schoolchildren, about the importance of hedgerows and the ecosystem services they provide. The project made it possible to create 572 km of hedgerows and develop thousands of hectares of natural areas that are beneficial for wildlife.
Policy Relevance
Sensibilis’haie is another project that demonstrates the work that hunters and their organizations are doing to protect nature and strengthen biodiversity by restoring European habitats. European policies must support this important work aligned with the goals of the Nature Restoration Law and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 for a future rich in biodiversity and wildlife.
FNC is committed to providing several hundred ready-to-use planting kits to municipalities in exchange for their commitment to sustainable hedgerow management. This know-how is supported by decades of work by hunters in nature preservation, including planting hedgerows, restoring ponds, and planting vegetation cover that supports wildlife.
The French government has acknowledged the success of this project. The Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, and the Secretary of State for Biodiversity, have presented a pact in favor of hedgerows reflecting the ambition to develop hedgerows in France with a target of 50,000 km of hedgerows to be planted by 2030.
According to recent reports, hedgerows are decreasing in France worryingly, therefore, the project’s goal is also to stop this reduction. Hedgerows are important in rural landscapes, and in maintaining biodiversity, they have an environmental, agronomic, climatic, and economic role. The Sensibilis’haie project is a real step in the collective mobilization for the protection and restoration of those rich and biodiverse ecosystems.
Thus, with initiatives like Sensibilis’haie, FNC is taking concrete steps to reverse the trend of hedgerow disappearance while raising awareness and involving citizens in the preservation of their natural heritage. Hedgerows are biodiversity treasures, and this project gives them a chance to be preserved and valued for future generations.
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