Paris (France) (AFP) – The government announced on Tuesday the establishment of aid intended for woodland owners in the Landes and Pyrénées-Atlantiques whose trees have been cut down and immobilized to fight against the pine nematode, a worm that destroys conifers.
Published on: 03/11/2026 - 10:03
This aid aims to compensate "the loss of income suffered from November 5, 2025 by the owners of wood cut in the departments of Landes and Pyrénées-Atlantiques due to administrative immobilization measures taken in the fight against Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, pine nematode", it is specified in a decree published Tuesday in the Official Journal (JO).
This translucent worm measuring less than a millimeter is capable of destroying an entire forest when it spreads.
The amount of credits available to finance this aid is 200,000 euros, and the terms are specified in a decree, also published Tuesday in the Official Journal.
“The amount of aid depends on the difference between the price at which the wood was initially to be sold and the final sale price,” indicates the decree, with a cap for each beneficiary.
Applications for assistance can be submitted until December 15, 2026.
Since the detection of a first case in the Landes, in Seignosse, at the southern end of the massif in November 2025, a race against time has begun to eradicate this small organism, via the felling of pines in an "infested zone" of 500 meters around the contaminated conifers and by removing dead trees from a 20 kilometer buffer zone.
The demarcated area is now 461,800 hectares, compared to nearly 400,000 in mid-September, according to the latest bulletin from the Regional Directorate of Food, Agriculture and Forestry (Draaf) Nouvelle-Aquitaine, published on October 29.
On October 20 and 21, six new contaminations were detected, in the municipalities of Saint-Étienne-d'Orthe (Landes) and Artiguelouve, Biron, Castillon, Cescau and Lons (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), it is specified.
The bulletin further indicates that as of October 28, 18,294 identified trees had been felled in forests, and around forty in gardens, green spaces, vegetated infrastructures, not counting "the clear cutting carried out in the infested area of Seignosse, nor the destruction of contaminated trees".
© 2026 AFP
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