Funding uncertainty for the Plan Loire 2015-2020

For 20 years a series of multi-year plans have guided management of the Loire River basin.  Generally, each "Plan Loire Grandeur Nature" has concentrated on flood control, restoration of natural habitats, and tourism.  (Persuading UNESCO to designate the central Loire with all of its chateaux as a “World Heritage Site” was a project in one of the early plans.)

The fourth plan, due to run from 2015 through 2020, has been adopted, but France’s recent territorial reforms could end up undermining part of its funding.  Europe committed 33 million euros under its program for regional development back in November of last year.

But the domestic commitment is more complicated.  Plan funding comes from the national government, the regions within the Loire basin, and in some cases individual departments.  Funding commitments are currently being negotiated through a process leading to a contract between the regions and the national government ("Contrat de plan interrégional État-Région" (CPIER)).

The problem for the 2015-2020 Plan is that over the next year regional, and in some cases departmental, organizational arrangements are being reshuffled following Paris’ decision to reduce the number of regions from 22 to 13.  For the regions and departments it’s hard to commit to funding a six-year plan when you’re not sure what your own finances will be a year from now.

Terra Nova: Une Politique Sociale-Écologique

Terra Nova recently issued a short policy paper entitled Pour une Politique Sociale-Écologique: Protéger l'Environnement et Réduire les Inégalités.  From a relatively quick review, it looks like a useful restatement of the need to combine environmental and social policies.  Terra Nova, which until now I've only been passingly aware of, was created in 2008 and describes itself as an "independent progressive think tank aiming to produce and disseminate innovative political solutions for France and Europe."  It's been compared to the moderately progressive Center for American Progress in the U.S.

The report's emphasis that the poor are the least able to protect themselves from the effects of environmental degradation is not new news.  Nor is it news that environmental programs often face opposition from those claiming that they limit the economic growth that would benefit the poor.  Still, the paper is a timely reminder that, politically and practically, environmental programs and actions to reduce inequalities need each other.  And it presents several arguments in favor of a "politique social-écologique."

The authors promise specific policy proposals in later papers.  They also promise to broaden the discussion to European and international settings.  I'll pay more attention now.

The Cher "Canalized"

La Nouvelle République recently included a curious article about the Cher River and an organization, “Le Syndicat du Cher canalisé.”

Copyright La Nouvelle République

The article describes the organization’s plans for 2014, which are supposed to include renovation of dams on the Cher, regulation of its flow, and balancing recreational use and environmental preservation.  The article’s tone was entirely matter-of-fact; no issues; nothing about the possibility that the Syndicat’s plans for the dams, for example, might raise any questions.

It made me curious about a river described as canalisé and an organization that aims to preserve that condition by restoring dams and yet also claims to be preserving the environment.

A separate organization, “Les Amis du Cher Canalisé,” offers an interesting history of transporation on the river.  In 1828 the Canal du Berry opened as far as Noyers-sur-Cher providing the first part of a link between Montluçon and Tours.  The second part involved building a series of needle dams and locks to allow barges to connect to the Loire at Tours.  Needle dams, developed in France at the beginning of the 19th century, are a type of low dam made of wooden slats, or needles.  They aren’t intended to be water tight and needles can be added or removed to control the water level behind.  The series of these dams on the Cher was completed in 1841.  “Canalisé,” it turns out, doesn’t mean “channelized,” in the sense of the arrow-straight, cement-lined troughs the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers likes to construct.  It means, rather, that, with the needle dams, the river could be used for transport as if it were a canal.  And it appears it was.  The “Amis” cite records reporting that 4,600 barges passed along the canalized portion in 1846.  By the 1920s, this canal, like most others, had lost out to railroads and roadways.  Eventually, in 1955, the national government removed the canal from its list of navigable waterways and responsibility for the canalized portion was handed over to the two departments through which it flows, the Indre-et-Loire and the Loir-et-Cher.  For several years, the departments pretty much ignored the river.  Then, in the 1990s, they became interested in the recreational and tourist potential.  Through an interdepartmental entity, the Syndicat, they started restoring the needle dams to provide water deep enough for boating and canoeing and, eventually, a floating restaurant.

Meanwhile, in 2002, the national government declared the Cher to be a natural habitat for several migratory species of fish, including lampreys, shad, and eels.  Within five years, dams would need to be modernized to allow for their passage.   More or less since then there have been an on-going tensions between the Syndicat and Amis on one side, and environmental organizations on the other.

Recently, SOS Loire Vivante and several other environmental and fishing organizations have written to local authorities objecting to recent repairs to several of the needle dams damaged in flooding in 2013.  They note that the dams have not been modified to provide for migratory species as the law requires.  They propose what they term a compromise under which some of the dams would be maintained, provided they’re modified to accommodate migratory fish, and others would be dismantled.

Hollande's turn and the environment

-        My two favorite bloggers on French politics have included -- and referenced -- several commentaries on President François Hollande’s press conference last week.  The New York Times summarized his proposals as including tax cuts, spending reductions, and a generally business-friendly tone.  So far he seems to have upset those on the outer edges of the right and the left, created divisions within the UMP, and received encouraging words from some Germans and E.U. officials.  This all suggests his move to the center could turn out to be smart politically.  And, what seems less likely, it could even be good for France’s economy and for hiring.

Still, I doubt this business-friendly turn is going to be good for the environmental issues I tend to follow.  Right off the bat, I’d say that this turn makes it more likely the government will go ahead with construction of the new airport at Notre-Dame-des-Landes.  In the name of regional economic development (à la les Trente Glorieuses) and jobs, I expect Hollande and Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault will clear out the camped-in protesters and move in the bulldozers, probably in the next few weeks.  It’s also hard to see how the government resist local development interests in the department-by-department face-offs over flood plain zoning along the Loire and other rivers.  And how likely is it the government will insist to the always over-burdened farmers that they cut back on fertilizers and pesticides to clean up local drinking water supplies?  We’ll see, but I’m not optimistic.

Agricultural pollution in drinking water

Farmers and environmentalists often have a hard time being friends.  This is especially true when agricultural fertilizers and pesticides are leaching into groundwater systems and drinking water supplies.  Another instance of this was recently reported in the French department of the Vienne just south of the Loire Valley.
 
A biennial report from the Agence régionale santé (ASR) for the Poitou-Charente Region found dangerous levels of nitrates in several local drinking water supplies.  As a result, some drinking water agencies are considering investing in special treatment systems to remove the contaminants.  The ARS found similar contimination from pesticides.

© La Nouvelle République

The article in La Nouvelle Republique (published in Tours) only reported on the release of the ARS study, not on any corrective measures.  So, absent any action, this appears to be where things will remain.  Farmers will continue current practices and drinking water customers will pay higher rates to cover costs of decontamination, effectively providing another form of agricultural subsidy.

The national consumer organization UFC Que Choisir is reported to have initiated some form of legal action, but the article didn’t provide details.

The Minister takes her leave

Well, she certainly didn't just hand over the keys to her office and go home.  Delphine Batho, recently dismissed from her position as French Minister of the Environment, gave a press conference today in which she took aggressive shots at the Prime Minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault and certain "economic lobbies" that wanted her out.  Her remarks have been called "politically naive," and they probably were.  All of the blame was directed elsewhere, for example, none her own way.

But her political inexperience and lack of press conference skills shouldn't obscure the fact that the Hollande/Ayrault government, when it chose her ministry to take the largest budget cuts in its 2014 budget, announced that, to put it mildly, environmental programs were way, way down on its list of priorities.  That, to me,  has a lot more significance than Ms. Batho's press conference.

The government's priorities may be jobs, and correctly so.  But, more like socialists of 40 or more years ago, they seem to act as if jobs mean infrastructure and regional economic development.  It's as if they're out to recreate the "Trentes Glorieuses" the 30 years of post-war economic growth.  Thus Ayrault's Notre-Dame-de-Landes airport project just west of Nantes where he was mayor for many years, justified as critical for economic growth in that part of western France.  No one in the government seems much interested in what all this does to land and water resources, or whether the jobs being created will still be around in five or ten years.

Meanwhile, Ms. Batho retains a seat in the National Assembly as a deputy from the Deux Sèvres, a largely rural district directly south of Angers and the Loire River.  I don't have the impression she was particularly identified with environmental issues before being name to her ministerial position.  Nor has she been that close to EELV (Europe Écologie Les Verts) party members.  It will be interesting what role she plays now.

Budget cut, environment minister gone

French president François Holland's government recently announced its budget for 2014 with more cuts in public spending; the agency taking the biggest hit turned out to be the Ministry of the Environment with a seven percent reduction in funds.  Who knows what was going on behind the scenes, but this turned out to be too much for the Minister, Delphine Batho.  She publicly criticized her own government, calling it a "bad" budget.  On Tuesday she was sacked.

The budget cuts together with Ms. Batho's firing, even allowing for her failure of collective responsibility, says nothing good about the Holland government's interest in the environment.  And this is not the first time Holland and Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault have axed a head of the department that seemed to taking a commitment to the environment too seriously.  Holland's first Minister of the Environment, preceding Ms. Batho, was Nicole Bricq.  But shortly after being named to the position, she suspended oil exploration permits in the waters around Guyane.  The oil companies complained and Ms. Bricq was gone.

Ms. Batho has been replaced by Philippe Martin, a PS deputy from the Gers and until now a member of the Assembly's commission on sustainable development.

Apparently Ms. Batho wasn't particularly close to the EELV members of the government or environmentalist members of her own Socialist Party.  But after the government's severe downgrading of environmental policy as indicated by the budget -- quite apart from Ms Batho's firing -- one wonders at what point the EELV members of the government will decide their project may be better served by leaving.