At an altitude of 3,300 m, the highest ZAD in France is located on a glacier in the Hautes-Alpes

2023-10-09 15:02:32

This is the highest zone to defend (ZAD) ever established in France. On the Girose glacier (Hautes-Alpes), in the Écrins massif, around fifteen mountaineers have set up a base camp at an altitude of 3,300 m since Saturday in order to block the preliminary work started for the construction of the third section of the La Grave cable car. “It is not a ZAD which is intended to last like in La Clusaz, because the climatic conditions in the high mountains are too harsh in autumn,” explains Léa, from the Soulèves de la Terre Hautes-Alpes, at the origin of the action. Our goal is to block the construction site until the snow arrives and to support associations already engaged in the fight against the development of the glacier, such as Mountain Wilderness or La Grave otherwise. »

“We are going to destroy the environment of androsaces”

This work, carried out by the La Grave Tourist Development Company (SATG), a subsidiary of SATA (Alpe d’Huez, Deux-Alpes, etc.), began quietly around mid-September, on the rocky area where the site should be built a cable car pylon. Modular buildings and construction tools were airlifted to the middle of the glacier. The associations opposed to the project therefore filed a summary appeal with the Marseille administrative court on September 20, pointing out that a species of protected plant, the Dauphiné androsace, was threatened there. Its rejection on September 28 encouraged the action of the Earth Uprisings.

According to the Agrestis design office: “The earthworks for the planned pylon excavations, of which it is not disputed that their launch will not take place until spring 2024, are preceded by a phase of defense consisting of to preserve the plants of the protected species from the intrusion of workers (…)”

“Are we going to destroy the environment of androsaces and hope to protect them at the same time? It’s ridiculous,” criticizes Frédi Meignan, from Mountain Wilderness. He is awaiting a judgment on the building permit on the merits in 2024. David Le Guen, commercial director of SATG, did not want to answer our questions.