It's rather chilly this Wednesday, November 13, 2024. This is undoubtedly the reason why the river brigade that went looking for infractions on the Sèvre Niortaise will ultimately not find anyone to pin down on the Vanneau-Irleau side. No matter, the aim of the outing is also preventive: it is to show that certain people are ensuring compliance with the environmental code. Thus the adjutant Olivier Laganne, at the helm of the boat, and the fisheries warden Jérôme Babut, who left that afternoon with the intention of checking the licenses and the contents of the bags of the fishermen they might have found on the shore…
“Our mission is to enforce the environmental code”
“Our mission is to enforce the environmental code,” summarizes Lieutenant-Colonel Éric Hoarau, deputy commander within the Deux-Sèvres departmental gendarmerie group. The operation carried out this week – which involved the gendarmerie alongside representatives of the fishing federation and the French Office for Biodiversity – was part of the regional operation “Clean Territories”.
In the crosshairs? Poachers (motivated by a demand that does not weaken) or fishermen without a card or stamp, but also illegal dumping of garbage – the strengthening of controls in urban areas encourages offenders to go and unload in the countryside, out of sight ( 1) –, caravans or motorhomes parked idly (in the area of the Regional Natural Park, caravanning is prohibited outside authorized areas), wrecked vehicles stored without precaution (and whose liquids pollute the waters ), the burning of green waste (which remains prohibited), huts or lean-tos built without authorization or the felling of pollarded ash trees, etc.
Prohibited crops
“And, from the canoe, we can also discover forbidden cultures”whispers Warrant Officer Laganne who, more than once, has had plots of cannabis planted at the water's edge seized.
Today, this gendarme attached to the Frontenay-Rohan-Rohan brigade is the only investigator specializing in violations of the environmental code. He is also one of the five gendarmes authorized to pilot the two boats which equip this unit: “It is not illogical that this brigade has these boats knowing that a third of the territory in which it must intervene is in the wet part of the Marais Poitevin”underlines Lieutenant-Colonel Hoarau.
The police regularly patrol with agents from the fishing federation and the French Biodiversity Office. But “not as often as they would like”they say.
Since the start of the year, they have noted around thirty infractions, including around ten related to fishing.
(1) In 2023, nearly 2,000 offenses relating to waste were recorded in New Aquitaine, i.e. 2.6% more than in 2023. In July 2023, the gendarmerie set up a body dedicated to fight against environmental delinquency, the “Cesan”, Command for the environment and health.
