For two days next week, the most famous and busiest thoroughfare in Paris, the Champs Elysees, will vanish under tens of thousands of trees and young saplings.
The creation of a forest in the heart of the French capital forms part of the Nature Capitale project, devised by ‘street artist’ Gad Weil to mark UN International Biodiversity Day on May 22. A pioneer in this kind of large-scale display, Mr Weil 20 years ago turned the Champs Elysees into a field of wheat in a project called La Grande Moisson.
Nature Capitale from May 23-24 will also feature thousands of displays from the French farming sector, with the collaboration of the country’s Jeunes Agriculteurs young farmers organisation highlighting the stress the sector today puts on environmental performance.
The forestry and timber aspect of the event is being co-ordinated by the France Bois Forêt organisation and the French tree and plant nursery sector. It will comprise containers planted with more than 150,000 trees. Most of these will be small saplings supplied by the nursery industry, but there will also be 11,000 young trees up to 2.5m tall and 650 mature examples of the main French species.
“The aim will be to highlight the value of the French forest in terms of biodiversity, but also its contribution to sustainable development through supply of renewable products, including timber,” said Nature Capitale spokesperson Catherine Rosec.
The project is being funded by financial institutions, including the Credit Agricole bank, and through the sale of its 8,000 component ‘plots’ to the public.
The whole project will be put together through the night of May 22 and removed on the night of May 24 ready for rush hour the next day.
The Nature Capitale organisation next hopes to take the concept around the world, with similar displays in New York, Istanbul, Sao Paulo, and possibly London in the longer term.
