Colas has just signed two 3-year partnerships, one with the French Office National des Forêts (ONF) fund and the other with the NGO Impactum, to plant 7,000 trees in France and 15,000 more in Côte d'Ivoire, via the Forest & Life educational program led by Kinomé. The operation will involve more than 600 children in these two countries where Colas has deep-rooted ties to the local communities. 

The project will kick off with the planting of 1,500 trees on December 7, 2021 in the Port-Royal National Forest in the city of Trappes, near Paris. Participants will include Kinomé, the social enterprise responsible for the Forest & Life program, ONF agents, Colas representatives and second and third grade students from the Jean-Baptiste Clément elementary school, as well as city officials. The aim is to create hedgerows around a clearing that is home to a rare species of orchid and a number of migratory birds every year. A concrete action like this one will help educate children as to the importance of sustainable development and will be continued in the Sarthe département during the first quarter of 2022. 

 Forest & Life is an educational program led by Kinomé since 2010 in partnership with Canopé, a publisher of public educational resources for the French Ministry of Education. Over the period of one year, elementary school students will learn about forests with their teachers, before participating in the reforestation of a plot of land near their home accompanied by forest technicians. This is also a global solidarity project, since for every tree planted in the northern hemisphere, two are planted in an endangered forest in the southern countries.  Colas will support the reforestation of 15,000 trees in the Yapo-Abbé forest, 30 km from Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire.  

“These partnerships are clearly in line with Colas' low-carbon and biodiversity commitments. For several years now, we have aimed to launch a project relating to trees and forests. The program appealed to us because not only does it help restore forest and foster biodiversity, it also raises awareness among the younger generation – and Colas employees - to help guide them on their path to becoming eco-citizens", explains Anne-Laure Levent, Deputy Environment Director at Colas.

Colas has a biodiversity strategy aimed at fostering ecological niches and preserving emblematic species in its quarries. Among the actions carried out in recent years in partnership with local residents and employees, highlights include the creation of a black bee conservatory in the Cozzi quarry in Provence, France in collaboration with the CNRS and Apilab, and the preservation of Great Horned Owls in Hungary. One of the Group’s objectives is to implement one biodiversity action in every one of its quarries and gravel pits by 2024.