The budgetary austerity planned in the 2025 finance bill could well pull the rug out from under the feet of biodiversity promoters. Among them, Prom'haies in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, based in Montalembert and operating in six departments (1), is concerned about the reduction in credits under the Pact in favor of hedges. “The budget would be divided by four: 30 million euros for 2025 against 110 million for 2024”specifies the association, in a press release sent on October 21, 2024.
“A hard blow to our annual objectives”
Launched in September 2023 by the Ministry of Agriculture, this pact set “a net gain objective of 50,000 km of hedges by 2030” and defined “a clear and ambitious quantified trajectory for our country, requiring lasting support over several years”. “It is the most important public support fund for hedges and it concerns agricultural plots”specifies Pierre-Marie Moreau, director of Prom'haies in Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
For the 2024-2025 winter planting campaign, which should start around mid-November, “the overall investment amounts to 1.6 million euros in Deux-Sèvres and Vienne, for approximately 90 km of plantations”he recalls, before warning: “But if we have to divide these figures by four for the winter of 2025-2026, that would be a big blow to our annual objectives. »
According to the association, these budgetary savings would result in “deprive farmers of the very important role of adaptation to climatic hazards (floods, drought, etc.) that hedges play, as well as a carbon storage sink for our climate policy”.
An impacted sector
And an entire sector could even be threatened. There is of course Prom'haies, which has increased its workforce “to encourage this dynamic”and the other local actors associated with this approach (2). There are also forest nurseries, who supply seeds and plants, and professionals who ensure the recovery of wood from hedges into chips. “All these actors will be impacted”predicts Pierre-Marie Moreau, who therefore calls on the government and parliamentarians “to return to this budget reduction project and to respect the commitments made with the Pact in favor of the hedge”.
(1) Charente, Charente-Maritime, Deux-Sèvres, Dordogne, Haute-Vienne and Vienne.
(2) Chambers of Agriculture, departmental federations of hunters, League for the Protection of Birds, Bocage Pays Branché, etc.
