Making gold from Europe's green treasure troves - EuroparlTV visits France's Vosges mountains.

Reporter: Seeing the wood from the trees

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/16371200/m003-0265-enx.srt

Over 3.4 million people in Europe  make a living from the forest and timber.

The European Commission should soon  publish a new action plan for EU forests.

EuroparlTV went  to the Vosges Massif in France

to find out what economic advantages  intelligent resource use can have

Nicolas is in his 30s and for eight years  now he has come to the forest to work.

He is responsible  for buying timber for a sawmill

that transforms 400 cubic metres  of tree trunks each day.

We're not one of the biggest  sawmills in terms of capacity

We're going to visit a plot  that has been put up for sale.

My role is to see if the wood's quality  meets our sawmill's requirements.

It's a long drive for Nicolas before he can  assess the plot that he's been proposed.

Twenty kilometres away, dozens of trucks  supply timber to this paper mill every day.

It has been in the Vosges  for over 20 years

and produces 600,000 tonnes  of newsprint per year,

enough to satisfy  annual consumption in France.

There are three main reasons  why the site was established here.

We're in the heart of the Vosges Massif,

the natural site of the fir trees  and spruces that we use.

Water is present with the Moselle River.

We need 15,000 cubic metres  of water per day.

And finally electricity,  which at the time 20 years ago

was cheaper than in neighbouring  countries like Switzerland or Germany.

The installation of this paper giant  attracted other companies to the area,

all encouraged by the synergies that  could exist with the paper manufacturer.

We have tried to develop activities  around our own,

in which we could sell products  or sell services.

Selling timber. We know how to  buy timber and supply a factory.

So we supply timber to Pavatex,  next door to us, and to ourselves.

But we also produce steam.  We supply them with steam.

And other services, like maintenance,  to another small factory on our site.

The last factory  to be set up in the area is Swiss.

It produces wood-fibre insulation panels.

The cost of the installation  was 60 million euros,

1.7 million of which came  from Europeans funds.

Its neighbour allows it to make  considerable savings

and to be more environmentally friendly.

We have certainly, thanks to  the synergies with Norske Skog,

been able to reduce  our investment spending by 20%

The forest is one of the EU's  main renewable energy sources

and resource overexploitation  worries industry professionals.

In Brussels, this MEP wants to develop  the economic potential of the forests.

I think Europe is duty bound to boost  such strategic areas as research.

Much progress needs to be made  in the research with respect to timber,

ways to replace  traditional energy resources.

After walking for a few minutes,  we come to the heart of the Vosges forests.

Nicolas now has his eyes fixed  on the treetops surrounding him.

His mission is to estimate the price to offer  to obtain the plot of trees up for sale.

I am looking for the type of relatively  slender timber you can see around us.

The trunk should be cylindrical  and stand upright with few branches.

If there are branches,  they should be thin.

This will then enable us to process  good quality lumber in the sawmill.

When back at his car,  Nicolas drafts an offer.

The idea is simple: the largest offer  gets the plot. The competition is stiff.

If wood is needed, we shouldn't  hold back, within our limits,

from offering a higher price  than the others.

Used for the reduction of CO2,  renewable energy and green construction,