The news has been circulating for several weeks on social networks: mooring boxes to accommodate 24-meter yachts, in the Gulf of Ajaccio, would be largely financed by the government’s green funds. “The absurdity is at its peak,” wrote a user on Twitter. Indeed, many environmental activists, or ordinary French citizens, find the information “too big to be true”. “How can we finance the holidays of big polluters with a fund intended for ecology, including the preservation of our seas and our seabed? asks one of them. And yet, everything is true.
FAKE OFF
On April 3, the Prime Minister presented the winners of the green fund, created last summer to finance ecological projects. “With the green fund, the government is determined to take action to tackle the ecological challenges facing us. Ecological planning calls for joint, ambitious action and is embodied in concrete projects,” explained Élisabeth Borne at the time.
Among the beneficiaries of these 2 billion euros in aid: the installation of two buoys in the Gulf of Ajaccio, to allow yachts over 24 meters to moor without dropping anchor and preserve the fields of seagrass beds. Thanks to 521,000 euros of public funds, the luxury boats will therefore be able to stop in the area. A project carried by carried by the chamber of commerce and industry of the island which has a total cost of 664,000 euros.
The Ministry for the Ecological Transition, which is managing the file, declared: “Currently, the Corsican island ports, which are insufficiently equipped, are unable to respond to the growing frequentation of large yachts (over 24 meters)” . Until now, these imposing boats drop anchor off the island of Beauty. A destructive practice for underwater biodiversity.
Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister for Energy Transition, was also questioned on the subject at the microphone of France Info. She then declared that this “serves to preserve the biodiversity of Corsican waters”, in particular Posidonia. These seagrasses are home to a very rich biodiversity, and can store massive amounts of carbon: they represent less than 0.2% of the surface of the oceans but account for 10% of the carbon absorbed annually by them.
A more ecological system or simple “privatization of the sea”?
The cause then seems rather noble. However, some doubt that this type of mooring is really more respectful of the environment than simply “anchoring” offshore. I’Corsican environmental protection association U Levante, in particular, contests the ecological virtues attributed to these mooring boxes, weighted by a concrete block of several tons placed on the seabed. Indeed the question arises: how would a concrete block destroy the seabed less than a boat anchor? The answer given by the CCI of Corsica, carrier of the project, is that this block is perforated, thus allowing a better respect of the underwater biodiversity.
The associations mostly reject this argument. Added to this is the pollution caused by yachts, not to mention the problematic location of moorings. The vast majority are located in so-called protected marine areas facing emblematic land sites: natural parks and Natura 2000 sites. These places are classified in order to preserve a specific biodiversity, which is sometimes in danger. “These organized moorings are therefore destructive of marine fauna and flora: instead of protecting biodiversity, they will accentuate its collapse”, underlines U Levante.
What also gets in the way is the fact of financing the development of yacht tourism in the name of biodiversity. Various activists denounce a new example of “pro-employer ecology” led by the government. On his side, the association U Levante has been denouncing for several months “a process of urbanization and privatization of the sea”, in the poorest region of metropolitan France.