Nature gets a new champion

The Agence Française pour la Biodiversité (AFB) is tasked with “strengthening public policies and mobilising civil society in the fight against the erosion of biodiversity”, its director, Christophe Aubel, said.
It aims to halt the decline by stopping land from being built on – the equivalent size of a French department is concreted over every seven years – and, with wetlands, forests and grassland under threat, protecting countryside, lakes, rivers and maritime zones is key.

France hosts nearly 55,000 species of animals and plants – 35% of the total species in Europe but also 34% of those on the European Red List classified as endangered. It has two-thirds of Europe’s dragonfly species but 11 of the 89 are in danger along with 32% of birds, 28% of freshwater crustaceans, 24% of reptiles, 23% of amphibians, 22% of freshwater fish and 17% of orchids.

Eight years ago only a quarter of birds were threatened but now the puffin, crane, skylark and house martin are among the one-third of birds in danger – and the butterfly population of the Beauce wheat fields in northern France has halved in 10 years.

The AFB is the state’s second main environmental agency, along with the environment and energy management agency Ademe, but while it has been created by merging four national bodies, including the national parks, it does not include the powerful forestry and hunting agency Oncfs – after pressure from the hunting lobby.

Sandrine Bélier, of pressure group Hum­anité et Biodiversité, said the new agency was “good news that had taken a long time and had faced many difficulties, especially the failure to include the Oncfs.
“At last biodiversity is recognised for its value after taking a back seat over the years while advances were made in energy and climate. But we need an agency that can coordinate action in favour of nature.”
Setting up the agency was one of President Hollande’s campaign promises and was part of last year’s biodiversity law which also brought in a ban on towns and villages using chemicals on public land.
More than 4,000 communes have already gone pesticide-free including Lyon, which was one of the pioneers when it told its parks and gardens staff in 2002 that they would have to change their way of working and find alternatives to using chemicals to kill weeds or fertilise grass and plants.

Now the city uses ladybirds to control aphids, mulch to control weeds and shredders to chop up clippings to go on its new compost heaps.
As a result it has created 10% of extra green space in the city and has seen the return of a rare orchid plus butterflies and bees to the world-renowned urban park, Ros­er­aie du Parc de la Tête d’Or.