The IUCN Local Action Summit took place on 3 September 2021—the opening day of the IUCN World Conservation Congress—in Marseille, France. Leaders convened to showcase and galvanise conservation efforts in cities and regions, make the case for a nature-based recovery to COVID-19, and announce ambitious action pledges for nature. Here follows a translated transcript of the speech delivered by the President of Île-de-France, Valérie Pécresse.
Friends, I’m very happy to be with you as we are from the largest region of France and it’s good that we come here to Marseille to say that we are very committed to nature conservation. This is a challenge that we all face.
Why am I talking about Ile de France? I’m talking about it because perhaps nature is more precious to those who don’t have it. If you look at a town or a city, when you have a city next to the countryside, there you have a sort of borderland that needs protection. There you can see how important green becomes.
Climate change is happening. We see how serious it is. We need nature-based solutions to mitigate its effects in urban areas. The health crisis is also happening. Well, basically you can say that nature has reaped its revenge.
I learnt a lot from a certain man. There was a cry that piqued my interest. Perhaps he spoke to some of you as well. I remember Jacques Chirac speaking in Johannesburg. He said, “Our house is burning and we are looking elsewhere.”
You may know that in 2007, in the Sarkozy government, I served as Minister of Research and I pushed for the establishment of IPBES which is a network of research focused on biodiversity. Now we have their reports. The reports tell us we need to act. It’s not just our house that is on fire. The fire has gone to our vegetable garden, to the woods and to the rivers. Plastics and waste pollute our waterways. We cannot put up with this or keep making excuses. Just a few weeks ago, I was here in the Calanques. There is tourism there, rubbish, all these things are jeopardizing the integrity of the national park. This shows what can happen even in the very best protected areas.
This is the Mare Nostrum – the Mediterranean should be a haven for us. It is the cradle of civilisation for us. Therefore, we need to work together to develop a pan-Mediterranean agreement so that we have zero plastics in the sea. I don’t want to see dolphins and whales washing up on our beaches because it indicates that our oceans are sick. Last year, more than a thousand bodies were found on our beaches, so let us stop this and let’s restore populations of marine life. Let’s stop people from throwing refuse into the sea. let’s achieve a zero rate by 2025.
We’re talking about the loss of biodiversity. We’re not just looking at emblematic species. It is important regardless of whether it’s wild, visible or invisible. We have a real challenge here. We set up an agency for this. We have had national meetings since 2019.
We are also creating green areas. we have 700 new green areas. We are also looking at organic farming and the preservation of water and trees. We support local areas and have come up with a system for compensating farmers who have had to change their farming policies for biodiversity.
We are also trying to prevent the death of our forests. We have started remediating urban wastelands. We have restored 500 km of hedgerows. We have restored green areas and increased nature reserves by 30%. We are looking at national planning. We want to make sure that Ile de France becomes an area where there are low emissions and where we have a circular economy.
It may not be clear to you, but in Ile de France, we now have 30% of protected areas, but l soon, we will have 34% protected areas because a 5th park will be established in a few months.
So, although we’re in a very urban area, we are still working on this. We are also committed to establishing four more reserves. Not only are we increasing areas but also improving the management of these areas. We are reintroducing beavers and buzzards.
I will make a promise to you: I will triple the number of nature reserves recognised internationally over five years. I have also spoken about the work of local authorities. I think it’s at the local level that we can do something about urban sprawl, protect the environment and convince the people that we must act and that it’s urgent.
So, in the Members’ Assembly of IUCN, there will be a vote on Motion A. I would be very proud to be from the first part of the world to embrace this. We believe that we can bring people together to live together in harmony with nature.