the essential
On Friday January 10 and Saturday January 11, the Domaine de Baudrigues, in Roullens, will be the setting for the 1st edition of the Plantathlon: an event which, each day, will be broken down into a morning of hedge planting, and an afternoon reflection and awareness around climate change and the transition in agroecology.
89 hectares of olive trees, 80,000 young shoots, 15 different varieties: this is the landscape that Plantathlon participants will discover, at the Baudrigues estate, in Roullens, on Friday January 10 and Saturday January 11. Two days designed by Nectar & Co, the Forêtvert Forever and Les imaginaries en transition associations, but also students from La Raque. A site on which Alexis Muñoz, co-creator of Nectar & Co, aims to “olive growing more organic than organic”based on agroecology: a practice that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) defines as an approach “holistic”who seeks to “optimizing the interactions between plants, animals, people and the environment while meeting the need for socially equitable food systems in which people can choose what they eat and how and where it is produced”.
Among the countless levers of agroecology, hedges: plants with multiple benefits, from the creation of ecological corridors to hydrological regulation, including soil fertility, carbon sequestration, and the promotion of biodiversity. Hedges that Plantathlon participants will have to plant on January 10 and 11: 3 km, over the two days, that is the official objective. “But we hope to go further, in terms of participation”says Emmanuel Pistre, from Forêtvert Forever. In mid-November, around sixty registrations were recorded. A little over a month later, the appointment displayed “complete”with a rich cast: “Around fifty employees, 100 people from the general public, 20 people from social centers, 20 participants from the world of education, and around forty supervisors. We had to refuse people.” All seduced by the idea of bringing their contribution to the process, to “be part of the solution”.
Serge Zaka, Iris-Amata Dion, Alain Canet, Lionel Giraud for the conferences
After the morning practical work, the Plantathlon will switch to mode “awareness”with afternoons of conferences at Domaine La Bastide de Madame, and four choice speakers. On Friday January 10, the agroclimatologist Serge Zaka, already in Aude in September 2024 for the Accel'Air forum, and Iris-Amata Dion, doctor in atmospheric and climate science, author of the fascinating graphic novel ” Climate horizons” (with the designer Xavier Henrion), with the floor given to nine authors from the IPCC (intergovernmental group of experts on climate change), will be at work. The first to discuss the “impacts of climate change on agriculture and the landscapes of Aude”the second to describe the “future reality” climate and answer a question: “Why do we need to act?”
Saturday January 11, new conference, entitled “From the earth to the plate – how and why respect for the environment must be included on our plates” : at work, Alain Canet, agroforester and president of the agro-ecology center of France, but also Lionel Giraud, the 2-star Narbonne chef from Maison Saint-Crescent, “catering professional sensitive to the supply of his ingredients”.
France
