Of the “errors” Who “sacrifice the environment to demagoguery”a government which “is fighting the wrong fight to resolve the agricultural crisis”of “serious setbacks” on the ecological transition… The observation of nature protection organizations is unanimous: to respond to the anger of farmers, mobilized to demand decent income and working conditions, the government has undermined several measures and mechanisms aimed at protecting biodiversity, facing an unprecedented crisis.
“We are facing environmental setbacks when there would have been an urgent need to involve farmers in an agroecological transition, giving them the means to do so and supporting them”, regrets Thomas Uthayakumar, program director of the Foundation for Nature and Man. “Recognition of the key role of agriculture in the fight against climate change and the collapse of biodiversity has unfortunately been swept away by the desire to please the FNSEA”France Nature Environnement is also alarmed.
Among the main setbacks, the executive announced on Thursday 1er February, the “shutting down” of the Ecophyto plan, aiming to reduce the use of pesticides by 50% by 2030. This decision comes after the State was condemned, in June 2023, for not having respected its commitments to reduce the use of these phytosanitary products, and ordered to repair the associated ecological damage before June 2024.
Among the FNSEA’s other targets was the French Biodiversity Office (OFB), accused of being relentless towards farmers. On January 26, during his first announcements, Gabriel Attal decided to place the public establishment under the supervision of the prefects and called for solutions to be quickly found “reduce tension”. In the wake of this declaration, incidents targeting the OFB increased. Agents targeted by name by a tag in Montbard (Côte-d’Or), tires and manure dumped in front of the OFB premises in Dijon, building wrapped in Pin-au-Haras (Orne), fire started in Lempdes ( Puy de Dome)…
Disarm the agents
“The situation, already complicated, is taking on unimaginable proportionsdenounced Véronique Caraco-Giordano, general secretary of the National Environment Union (SNE-FSU), on Wednesday. The Prime Minister made the OFB the scapegoat for the crisis and fed the agents, due to his total ignorance of what the establishment does. » After several days of silence, the Minister of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, said Wednesday evening ” beside ” agents “targeted, threatened, intimidated”.
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