The French Cistercian (Trappist) monk Jean-François Holthof (b. 1948) moved into his Ardèche hermitage in 1994, dubbed the Saint-Eugène de Chassagnes hermitage, on the edge of the Païolive forest. As a hermit he became a strong defender of the forest, eventually becoming secretary general of the Associaiton paiolive, which champions preservation of the nearly sixteen square kilometers of biologically diverse woodland. In 2010, Holthof contributed to a collection of essays titled Ce que nous dit nature (“What does nature tell us,”) , accompanying a Buddhist, a NativeAmerican, and a secular writer on the convergence of religious and sectarian thought in the defense of nature.
URL: https://www.ledauphine.com/environnement/2023/04/19/ardeche-l-ermite-jean-francois-holthof-nous-raconte-son-bois-de-paiolive (includes 2-minute video).