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Law No. 2025-268 of March 24, 2025, introduced a specific legal framework for the destruction of hedges, recognizing their essential role in maintaining biodiversity, soil quality, water regulation and landscape preservation. This measure aims to regulate hedge removal projects while enabling sustainable management of these landscape features.
Any intervention on hedges must aim for sustainable management, defined as allowing the maintenance of their agronomic, ecological, and landscape multifunctionality over space and time.
What is a hedge?
A hedge is defined in the Environmental Code as a linear unit of vegetation, other than crops, with a maximum width of 20m and comprising at least 2 of the following three elements:
- Shrubs,
- Trees,
- Woody plants: consisting of or resembling wood.
These provisions do not apply to tree-lined avenues and rows of trees, whether or not they border public or private roads, as well as hedges planted alongside buildings or in a square, that form the enclosure of a garden or park adjacent to a dwelling or that are located within this enclosure.
Regulation of hedge destruction projects
Any hedge destruction project is subject to a single prior declaration.
If the destruction of the hedge is subject to declaration under one or more legislations, the single declaration serves as such.
The administration has a maximum of 4 months to object; if there is no response, the project is deemed accepted. Work cannot begin before this period expires.
The competent administrative authority may inform the declarant, within the maximum 4-month period, that the implementation of their project is subject to obtaining a single authorization.
It informs them that their declaration is considered a single authorization request, and, if applicable, asks them to submit any additional information required for processing this request, while also indicating the timeframe within which the decision will be made. Work cannot commence before this single authorization is granted. The authorization decision is subject to public participation when it has a direct and significant impact on the environment.
The procedural and consultation rules applicable to the single authorization supersede the procedural and consultation rules provided for by the Environmental Code and by other legislation.
Finally, any hedge destruction is subject to compensatory measures involving the replanting of a linear length at least equal to that destroyed.
When hedge destruction is part of a project subject to environmental authorization, the latter serves as a non-opposition to the prior single declaration or a single authorization for hedge destruction.
Penalties for Non-Compliance with Single Declaration or Authorization Obligations
Destroying a hedge, when such destruction requires a non-opposition to the single declaration, without having obtained this non-opposition or in violation of a measure withdrawing this non-opposition, is punishable by the fine stipulated for 2nd class offenses (€750 for a legal entity).
Destroying a hedge, when such destruction requires a single authorization, without having obtained this single authorization or in violation of a measure withdrawing this single authorization, is punishable by the fine stipulated for 4th class offenses (€3,750 for a legal entity).
Local Provisions
Furthermore, in each department, based on available public data, particularly from the hedge observatory, and after consulting representative agricultural organizations, representative associations of local elected officials, representatives of network infrastructure managers, and an environmental protection association, the competent administrative authority issues an order establishing for the department:
- a period during which work on hedges is prohibited, taking into account sensitive periods for local species of concern with regard to nesting periods, as well as the specific climatic and soil conditions of the department;
- a compensation coefficient in case of hedge destruction;
- a list of usual local practices presumed to consistently meet the definition of routine hedge maintenance work within the department's territory.