Convergence Cormier - Network, Resources and Resilience of a forgotten tree in the service of agroecological transition

A major challenge for the agricultural, forestry and food transition lies in selecting species, varieties or provenances that are both resilient to climate change and provide multiple ecosystem functions and services.

The Cormier is a tree species of Mediterranean origin that was cultivated over a large part of the country for many centuries for its precious wood, its high fruit productivity and its medicinal virtues, then abandoned with the development of new fruit varieties (apples and pears) or more rapidly productive forest species. However, its resistance to drought and its multifunctionality make it a resource of choice to accompany the transformation of agricultural, forestry and food systems towards greater resilience. A species with a wide ecological range and great variability: size and maturity of the fruit, wood quality, resistance to disease, phenology, architecture, etc., the Cormier also has a historical and ethnobotanical heritage that is of interest to a wide rural and urban public, all generations combined.

A significant knowledge deficit, due both to a low demand from farmers and foresters until recent years and a scattered distribution of trees, hinders its development.

The emerging Cormier 3R project responds to this need for knowledge on the state of the Cormier biological resource. In an innovative and transdisciplinary way, it associates 1) public and private agroforestry and forestry stakeholders, 2) associative partners and citizens throughout the country who are already involved in inventories, preservation and rehabilitation, 3) research structures studying the genetic diversity and resistance of this species to climate change, thus forming a collective of 13 partners concerned with the development of the Cormier.

By structuring a national network around the Cormier and designing a research programme using participatory science, the Cormier 3R project aims to characterise the biological resource, its genetic diversity and its resilience, in order to set up selection programmes aimed at developing its potential uses: forestry, agroforestry, food and ornamental. It also aims to disseminate this knowledge to communities, the general public and the younger generation in order to involve them in the agro-ecological transition process.