The French government has published its draft National Biodiversity Strategy (SNB) with 39 measures defining its roadmap for safeguarding nature through to 2030.
The SNB was unveiled on Thursday evening amid a government reshuffle when it was announced the Ecology portfolio would be renamed Biodiversity, with Sarah El Haïry as its new Secretary of State.
France has committed to implementing its SNB in keeping with the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in December 2022.
The SNB, which has been in the pipeline for two years, includes an increase in the budget of €264 million as of 2024, as announced by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on 12 July.
With the existing fund for wasteland (€300 million per year) and nature restoration (€100 million per year), as part of the green fund, France's investment in the protection of biodiversity should reach "almost one billion euros" by 2024, Borne said.
The 264 million euros will be used to strengthen the "effectiveness" of protected areas, the protection of ecosystems, species, the biodiversity of forest and marine environments, and support for soil restoration, according to the document, seen by France's AFP news agency.
As announced in mid-2022, €500 million will also be mobilised over the period 2022-2027 to help bring nature back to the city.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in France welcomed the additional funding, although its director general Véronique Andrieux regretted the absence of any review of the French version of the Common Agricultural Policy, which "still represents 63 percent of subsidies that are damaging to biodiversity in France – some €6.5 billion per year".
Restoring nature
The aim of the roadmap is "above all to tackle the pressures on biodiversity", and "to restore nature wherever possible".
The government wants to place 5 percent of the metropolitan sea "under strong protection", including all of the Posidonia meadows in the Mediterranean, 34 percent of which has already been lost.
It will finally announce the location of the future "national wetlands park" – a decision awaited since 2008.
To combat invasive species, it has announced at least 500 high-profile operations between now and 2025, particularly in the French overseas territories, to "combat species that are taking root".
The government has also promised to set up a service to help companies meet their obligations to combat trafficking in endangered species, the importation of goods linked to deforestation or conflict minerals.
Two previous SNBs – one for the period 2004-2010 and 2011-2020 were adopted by the Ministry of Ecological Transition but were ineffectual. SNBs are not binding unless adopted by decree, as was the case for the National Low Carbon Strategy in April 2020.
(with AFP)
