Despite a conviction in January 2023 for nearly 1.2 million euros in fines and damages for the destruction of protected turtles, a prefectural decree authorized the entrepreneur Patrick Rocca to deviate from the environmental code on a construction site. construction of housing in Corsica.
Signed on January 29, this decree from the prefecture of Corsica-du-Sud authorizes Patrick Rocca and his company Fortimmo, for their project to build 162 housing units in Grosseto-Prugna (Corsica-du-Sud), in particular, to intentionally destroy or disrupt specimens of protected animal species or destroy, alter or degrade breeding sites or resting areas of protected animal species.
If the judgment notes that the project is located in a major sensitivity zone for the Hermann’s tortoise, it adds that it is nevertheless located outside any protection or inventory zoning, that it contributes to the rebalancing between secondary residences and main residences Porticcio (the seaside resort of Grosseto-Prugna) and that there is no alternative solution with less impact to the destruction of species and species habitats.
The National Nature Protection Council (CNPN) gave a favorable opinion to this request for exemption which is granted on condition that Mr. Rocca and his company implement avoidance, reduction and compensation measures, in particular that it compensates for the loss of 5.4 hectares of forest habitat and the destruction of Hermann’s tortoises by providing two sectors in the municipality with a total of 69 hectares.
The entrepreneur must also finance 100,000 euros of actions in the national action plan (PNA) in favor of the Hermann’s tortoise.
On January 24, 2023, the Ajaccio court sentenced the entrepreneur, one of the largest employers in Corsica, to a fine of 150,000 euros and a six-month suspended prison sentence for mutilation and unauthorized destruction of a protected animal species. for alteration and destruction of its habitat on this project.
His company Fortimmo was also ordered to pay a fine of 500,000 euros. Damages of 500,000 euros for the State and 30,000 euros for the environmental defense association U Levante were also awarded.
Six corpses of Hermann’s tortoises and one fatally injured were discovered by agents of the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) on this site.
The entrepreneur appealed and the hearing before the Bastia Court of Appeal has not yet been scheduled.
Along with the Var, the Ile de Beaut is the last refuge of the Hermann’s tortoise, the only terrestrial turtle in mainland France, classified as vulnerable on the national red list of threatened species and protected at international, European and French level.