It is a little-known story of victories against dams, warehouses and landfills. Stories of women and men who unite to fight against a project that destroys life and who triumph against the interests of big businesses. Between 1971 and 2024, nearly 250 victories for ecology have been won. This figure is the result of a study by a group of young researchers from the environment and society training center at the École normale supérieure. He analyzed all the projects abandoned for more than fifty years.
A first report of this research was published in the journal Silence in October 2022 (the map in paper version is available here).
Reporterre today publishes an interactive and updated version.
Their painstaking work began in 2021 in the journal’s archives Silencewhich has existed since 1982. « The initial list was made from activist memory or by asking associations like France Nature Environnement or Frapna »explains Juliette Piketty-Moine, doctoral student at the Center for Economics and Sociology Applied to Agriculture and Rural Areas in Dijon. The collective also went through the archives of the Foundation for Political Ecology as well as those of the journal Ecology over a period between 1974 to 1981. This unpublished work made it possible to highlight a little-known history of struggles. « They do not have the equivalent of CGT. The transmission of this story is only done by independent media »says Gabrielle Rey, doctoral student in sociology at the University of Nantes who participated in the study.
To give echo to these victories, the Terres de struggles association relied on this database to conduct interviews with 42 victorious environmentalist collectives. In their report entitled “ When the fight wins », they analyzed the victories over the last ten years. Result: 14,000 hectares of agricultural or natural land were saved and 15 billion euros of public and private investment were saved.
« The first lesson is that we can win »
« The first lesson from this study is that we can win, even if the project leaders have enormous financial resources and a strong support network, but it takes time. »underlines researcher Gaëtan Renaud, author of the study of Terres de struggles joined by Reporterre. On average, the groups studied won their case after seven years, compared to projects weighing an average of 540 million euros in investments.
Winning, instructions for use
This census is crucial for knowing, archiving and potentially transmitting the history of the environmental movement. It allows us to outline instructions for winning these David versus Goliath battles: here are four options, which can be combined, to destroy an ecocidal project.
First option: local mobilizationswhether they are counter-expertise, public information meetings, support from scientific institutes or demonstrations. Note that land occupations and sabotage actions are the exception rather than the norm. According to figures from Terres de struggles, over the last ten years, only four collectives studied have installed a zad. Ten others indicated that if the fight had not been abandoned before, the zad option was considered. Furthermore, a third of the collectives blocked the work against the advance of the bulldozers.
Second option: the courts. 80 % of the collectives studied by Terres de struggles have launched an appeal against the project. An expensive process estimated at between 3,000 and 5,000 euros. To raise this money, the collectives organize leaflets and demonstrations based on the arguments they have constructed using their expertise.
Certain struggles also make it possible to change legislation: the fight against red mud in Corsica in the 1970s thus gave rise to ecological damage. « This affair helped other struggles, such as in Le Havre where companies were dumping toxic products into the Seine. The collective relied on the documentation left by the fight against red mud in Corsica »explains Gabrielle Rey.
Environmental defenders and farmers joined forces against the project to extend a military camp in Larzac in the 1970s.
© staff / AFP
Third option: alliances. In the red mud affair, environmental associations had allied themselves with multiple actors, from politicians to religious authorities including fishermen. An effective cocktail for « build a balance of power »according to Gabrielle Rey.
Contrary to what one might think, not all opponents are seasoned environmentalists. « We have a group of people who have extremely different interests. It could be farmers who, one day, will lead a fight against the construction of a dam and who will then use pesticides »summarizes Gabrielle Rey.
« These are often rural mobilizations in places where it is not easy to call yourself green. These are people who want to defend their immediate environment against the injustices of a central state which imposes projects. »adds Juliette Piketty-Moine.
Thanks to demonstrations, blockages… Lafarge abandoned its project to extend a sand quarry over 37 hectares in Saint-Colomban.
Earth Uprisings / X
Fourth tool: convince politicians. At the local level, certain struggles even become campaign issues. Citizen groups can then present candidates in elections as in Saillans in Drôme. A group of residents fought against the construction of a supermarket which risked compromising the commercial life of the village. In 2014, his citizen list defeated the outgoing mayor and buried the project after the elections.
At the national level, left-wing candidates often include the abandonment of certain major projects in their program and apply it once they come to power. We think of the abandonment of the project to extend a military camp at Larzac and a nuclear power station at Plogoff in 1981 with François Mitterrand, then the Superphénix nuclear reactor in 1997, with Lionel Jospin at Matignon. The right has also canceled certain projects such as the Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport, abandoned in 2018 by Édouard Philippe, Emmanuel Macron's Prime Minister.
Victories…incomplete
Once victory has been won, activists often struggle to rejoice. « Victory is a risky notion because ecocidal projects do not stop and social transformation is a long time coming. »explains Gaëlle Ronsin, lecturer in sociology and anthropology at the University of Bourgogne Franche-Comté, who supervised this research work. The example of Notre-Dame-des-Landes is eloquent. « Some activists say they stopped an airport, but they did not stop forms of state authoritarianism. There may be a feeling of failure because there have been divisions on issues of individual or collective regularization on land. Certain groups were not necessarily satisfied with the victory »adds Gabrielle Rey.
Despite everything, activists manage to form strong bonds that last. 70 % of collectives or associations continue to exist after victory and maintain a form of monitoring, for fear that this project or another will see the light of day again, here or elsewhere. Enough to transmit a militant memory which is sorely lacking in the environmental movement today.
COMMENT HAS BEEN CONÇUE THE CARTE
These victories were classified into ten categories: dams, leisure, extractivism, nuclear, non-nuclear energies, transport, construction, agriculture, waste and industry. Activists opposed the construction of Amazon warehouses, surf parks by the sea, bitumen plants, factory farms and even ski resorts. The struggles are also distributed according to the natural space that the project would have destroyed: wetland, urban/peri-urban, natural space, forest, surface water, mountain, coastline, agricultural space.
Another criterion of distinction: the institution which formalizes the victory. Either the government, the justice system, the Council of State or the prefecture. The majority (24 % of cases), it is the government which cancels an ecocidal project, particularly in the nuclear field. Then come the local elected officials (21 % of cases) and legal recourse (19.5 % of cases).
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