Around 2,000 opponents of two industrial projects accused of “destroy» the forests of Limousin demonstrated in Guéret, in Creuse, on Saturday afternoon.
Between 2,000, according to the authorities, and 2,500 people, according to the organizers, strolled through the city center of the town of 13,000 inhabitants, in a good-natured atmosphere punctuated by brief moments of tension with the CRS, who use of tear gas at the end of the journey.
Two arrests
Two people were arrested at the end of the demonstration.
Before the departure of the procession, the demonstrators erected a “surveillance lookout» in wood, on the site where a pellet factory is to be established by 2026 on the outskirts of the city.
According to its promoter Biosyl, one of the largest French manufacturers of wood pellets, this factory, supported by the forest cooperative Unisylva, should make it possible to heat 70,000 homes by relying on “important forest resources» but today «underexploited» et «strengthen sustainable forest management».
Opponents denounce “industrialization” of the forest
But for the opponents, led by the local collectives Canopée and Syndicat de la montagne limousine, as well as France Nature Environnement and the CGT, this project, like that of an extension of a sawmill in Egletons (Corrèze), to make the largest in France, embodies “industrialization of the forest».
«They are real deforestation machines, which only feed on wood from clear-cut deciduous trees and which will release carbon into the atmosphere.», indignant Thibaud, one of the spokespersons for the demonstration wishing to remain anonymous.
According to him, if these installations are successful, “130,000 hectares of forest will be razed within 50 years».
Mathilde Panot was there
«Biosyl = Biocide», «For living forests», «the wood industry has a future without mega-projects», We could read on the signs brandished by the crowd, supervised by a strong police presence.
Present in the procession, the leader of the LFI deputies Mathilde Panot denounced the fact “that there be no democratic debate on the question of the forest».
«Biosyl is the predation of the forest, the industrial management that mistreats the women and men who work there», Estimated the rebellious MP.
The antimega wood mills» promised “other events in reaction to future stages of the project».
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