2023-12-16 17:52:58
A wind turbine in Boulogne-sur-Mer (Pas-de-Calais). SAMEER AL-DOUMY / AFP
A few kilometers north of Lodève, the Escandorgue massif is one of the southernmost of the Massif Central. No big towns, a few small villages and, from its ridge line which culminates at 850 meters, a splendid view of the surrounding limestone plateaus and valleys. Also in perspective is a significant number of wind farms that have been installed over the last two decades. In 2017, there were already six parks, or 51 wind turbines, on this massif, which has very good winds on its ridges.
Life continued its course and the territory remained best known for two things: its hiking trails and the Lérab Ling Buddhist temple, in Roqueredonde, founded in 1991 and which had become an important center of Buddhism in Europe. But, since December 7, the massif has found itself at the heart of a legal decision watched very closely by all wind turbine installers in France: the Nîmes Court of Appeal ordered that day the dismantling of the seven wind turbines de Bernagues, in the town of Lunas. Destruction decided to preserve biodiversity and in particular the golden eagles which nest on the massif. This is a first in France, which could therefore set a precedent.
The case is a real legal drama with, on one side a company, Valeco, parent company of ERL, Energies Renewables du Languedoc, which operates its wind turbines despite three cancellations of the building permit in twenty years, and on the other a collective of associations which never gave up, continuing the procedures.
But the presence of the golden eagle on the Escandorgue changed the situation. Many migratory birds already fly over this massif, located between the Massif Central and the Pyrenees and, in recent years, a pair of golden eagles have settled there. The problem then becomes determining who was there first: the wind turbine builder or the golden eagle?
Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Where to place wind farms and marine protected areas? Emmanuel Macron launches the debate on coastal development
“At the heart of the eagles’ home range”
For the mayor of Lunas, Aurélien Manenc (Socialist Party), who believes that wind turbines are an indisputable advance for the territory, the eagle arrived in the massif after the first impact studies which, at the beginning of the 2000s, barely mentioned the raptor. For scientists, the problem is a little more complex: “Even before the first appeals, believes the naturalist Alain Ravayrol, we had alerted the state about the use of ridge lines, appreciated both by wind turbine installers and by birds. »
Christian Itty, from the French Office for Biodiversity, agrees: “Lunas Park is at the heart of the eagles’ home range. The birds came to land there before the construction of the wind turbines because from the ridge, they have a bird’s eye view of the entire southern slope of the massif”. “In the environmental studies of the various park projects at that time on the massif, continues the associations’ lawyer, Olivier Gourbinot, all say they do not notice the presence of the eagle in their project area. As if the eagle was everywhere except in the wind project areas. »
You have 55% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
#north #Hérault #justice #requests #dismantling #wind #turbine #field