And if the reconquest of biodiversity in the territories was as simple as a scratch game?
This is the bet that the French Biodiversity Office (OFB) and La Française des Jeux (FDJ) made last year by launching the Biodiversity Lotteryon the same model as the Heritage Lottery.
Support for biodiversity throughout France
Sold for 3 euros in more than 29,000 FDJ points of sale and also available online, the scratch game will allow you to financially support nineteen projects throughout France. “ Of these 3 euros, 43 cents are donated to the OFB to finance projects», Specifies the FDJ.
The first edition, in 2023, raised more than €7 million and supported twenty-one projects in France, including two in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur regionnotably the project of preservation of bat roosts in the Siagne Gorges and the rehabilitation of populations of Hermann's tortoises in the Var.
This year, nineteen projects, divided into four categories (Prairie-Wetland-Ocean and coastline-Forest), were selected throughout France, including only one in the Paca Region. This is the renaturation project of the Courchon sitein the Verdonin the heart of the Alpes de Haute-Provence.
Renaturing spaces degraded by illegal parking
The Coastal Conservatory acquired 150 hectares ofnatural spaces on the karst plateau of Vénascleat the gates of Verdon Gorgesdominating the cliffs and the lake of Sainte-Croix.
Its objective is to renature degraded spaces of this plateau, particularly due to illegal parking, thanks to active management of open environments. This project is based on the one hand on a diagnostic pastoral carried out in 2020 which made it possible to identify the need to return to pastoral management open environments threatened by the encroachment of the Austrian black pine and on the other hand on the 2023 management plan, which underlines the importance of maintaining these spaces to protect certain species and organize public attendance.
Protect rare species
Concretely, what does active management of these open environments consist of? This involves in particular carrying out a clearing in order to protect rare species present as well as opening pastoral routes through pruning in order to facilitate the maintenance of the environments.
User awareness raising is also planned to supporting the general public in changes in use. « The project will bring threatened open environments back into pastoral management in order to perpetuate the mosaic of environments favorable to numerous heritage species. With the municipality of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, the uses and use of the site will be reorganized and regulated due to the fragility of certain sectors. This project will perfectly illustrate one of the founding principles of the Coastal Conservatory within its sites: preserve without confiscating », adds Brindille Soubrane, territorial mission manager at the Conservatoire du littoral for lakes of the Southern Alps.
The amount of this project is estimated at €335,400 with a forecast subsidy of €232,320.
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