Presentation short abstract

Bringing together sociotechnical regime and political forest approaches, this paper examines how material legacies, ecological disturbances, economic incentives and state instruments shape the territorialisation of three competing regimes of forest regeneration in Dordogne, France.

Presentation long abstract

Forest regeneration has become a terrain of struggle in climate change adaptation policies, as forests are simultaneously mobilised for adaptation and affected by ecological disruption. In France, state support for the plantation of fast-growing, genetically selected species reflects a techno-centric orientation seeking to reduce uncertainty while sustaining timber demand. It collides with approaches advocating natural regeneration, diversification and “living forests”, making regeneration an entry point into the contentious coproduction of forests. In Dordogne, these tensions are shaped by territorial histories and forest materialities: the decline of chestnut, both a biophysical process and a political narrative, legitimises the expansion of the neighbouring Landes-style plantation regime (pine monocultures), while local forests remain characterised by mixed stands and chestnut coppice. Drawing on ongoing fieldwork, this paper examines the competing territorialisations of three sociotechnical regimes of forest regeneration, understood as dynamic configurations of actors, technologies, artefacts, practices, values and institutional and economic logics: (1) the plantation regime, supported by state subsidies, carbon finance and adaptation narratives; (2) alternative configurations opposing clear-cuts and monocultures; and (3) a local chestnut regime, often devalued yet functioning as a site of hybridisation. Bringing together sociotechnical regime and political forest approaches, the paper analyses how material legacies and infrastructures, ecological disturbances, economic incentives and state instruments enable or constrain these configurations, shaping their capacity to materialise in place. It shows that forest regeneration is a process through which political, ecological and territorial orders are reconfigured, offering an insight into how political forests take shape in a global North setting.