Mayors, ecologists, farmers, tourism professionals, natural area managers, NGOs: in the Arles region, the airline project is unanimously opposed. The biologist Jean-Laurent Lucchesi recalls that the line would cross “four Natura 2000 sites, a biosphere reserve, a national nature reserve, the pinnacle of nature protection in France, the Camargue classified site (…) RTE says it: in 20 years, they have not have never seen an area with such a quantity of birds.”
The area that the THT line must cross covers the Camargue and Crau, a migratory corridor, breeding and wintering area. “Around 600 species of birds live in Europe: there are around 400 in the Camargue and barely fewer in Crau.“, continues the biologist.
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An overhead line at the edge of the steppe and the wetland would cut the connection between the environments. For example, this area attracts all the young Bonelli's eagles in the area. Power lines are the primary cause of death among them: two females were, thanks to their tags, found dead this year under THT lines in Bouches-du-Rhône, where only twenty pairs live.
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