“I am going to tell him that the way in which he ignored us amounts to contempt,” declared to AFP Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, president of the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO) responsible, with his WWF counterpart, for introductory remarks to the meeting, which was scheduled for 6 p.m.
“We share the anger of the thousand scientists who”, in a recent column in Le Monde, “condemn the government’s regression for the environment and health”, he still wishes to tell the Prime Minister. “Biodiversity is the scapegoat for the agricultural crisis,” believes the environmental activist.
Accusations on the executive from NGOs
“We work closely with many farmers and we know that the Ecophyto break is unacceptable because pesticides threaten our health, that the one on wetlands is unacceptable because 60% of them have stopped providing their ecological services, that the break on the hedges” of which 70% have disappeared since 1950, “is unacceptable”, lists Allain Bougrain-Dubourg.
The ten or so invited associations, which sit on the National Council for Ecological Transition (CNTE) and in other consultative bodies alongside farmers, accuse the executive of sitting on the compromises adopted in these institutions of “democracy ecological”.
Friends of the Earth, the Foundation for Nature and Man, Humanity and Biodiversity, the Climate Action Network, Surfrider Fondation Europe, France Nature Environnement and IUCN France are also represented, according to Matignon.
“We have rarely seen such a lack of consideration from environmental NGOs in 15-20 years”
“All these pauses are the last step before regression, which is condemned by the 2016 law”, which enshrined the principle of non-regression of environmental law, concludes the president of the LPO.
“We have rarely seen in 15-20 years such a lack of consideration from environmental NGOs”, “Gabriel Attal has fueled this unease and there is reason to be worried”, agrees Jean Burkard, advocacy director of WWF France. Its general director, Véronique Andrieux, is responsible for expressing the concerns of NGOs about the announcements of budget cuts.
“We had a reduction in the Green Fund”, of 400 million euros, “a 20% reduction in the National Biodiversity Strategy… These savings are made blindly”, continues Jean Burkard. “We wonder how the State, which still has to make 20 billion savings” in the next budget, “will not be tempted to cut funding for ecological planning,” he concludes.