In the Hautes-Alpes, a luxury real estate project threatens the “white forest”, the green lung of Risoul

The Southern Alps resort may already have 80% of “cold beds” (occupied less than 4 weeks per year), but it is still planning the construction of new residences and high-end hotels. Motivated solely by the logic of short-term profit, the “Grand Bois hamlet” project directly threatens the green lung of Risoul. Four associations including Mountain Wilderness and France Nature Environnement 05 are appealing to justice to stop this ecocide. A hearing is planned for early 2025. Risoul has less than 700 inhabitants, around forty buildings and chalets, 80% of which are “cold beds”, occupied less than four weeks per year. And the buildings continue to emerge from the ground! “The town hall plans to open 7,000 new beds: at the foot of the station, the foundations of an abandoned project adjoin the framework of a building under construction,” explains Reporterre. “Further, a 70-room hotel is to be built, while on the heights, a tourist district project – called the ‘Hameau des grands bois’”. The latter provides, in accordance with the plans presented by the town hall to the inhabitants of the town, the construction of high-end residences and hotels, i.e. a new tourist unit of 2,500 beds. As well as an underground car park with 770 spaces, two outdoor swimming pools and an asphalt road (in place of the old ski slope). This would require clearing 8.7 hectares of forest. This is opposed by four associations, Mountain Wilderness, France Nature Environnement 05, the PACA Bird Protection League and Risoul 1850 owners association, who denounce an “ecocide” project. At the start of 2023, they filed four legal appeals against permits to clear, develop and build, as well as a procedure before the administrative court to obtain access to a study on water commissioned by the town hall. “I had never seen that” “This development will lead to the annihilation of a significant natural carbon sink and the extinction of the green lung of Risoul:…