Forests and forestry in temperate regions face what may appear to be contradictory goals: to increase atmospheric carbon capture through sequestration in biomass and soils, while providing a growing share of the resources needed to produce essential material goods and energy for human societies as well as gradually renewing forests to enable them to adapt to future climate conditions. INRAE and IGN, at the request of the French Ministries responsible for agriculture and forestry, have jointly undertaken a scientific assessment to shed light on the details of this debate.