Accents of Europe

Alert to save biodiversity!

Audio 7:30 p.m.

Bee foraging on a coriander flower, in the Paris region: the high mortality of bees is causing great concern in France and Europe.

RFI/Elisa Drago

By: Frederique Lebel

2 mins

A million animal and plant species in danger.

And the figures for Europe alone are hardly encouraging.

18% of bird species threatened, 80% of natural habitats in an unfavorable state, and 40% of pollinators, bees or butterflies on the verge of extinction. 

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Saving biodiversity to fight pandemics

Biodiversity endangered by man... and whose collapse also puts man in danger.

In her latest documentary, journalist

Marie-Monique Robin

demonstrates with the expertise of some sixty scientists, how the disappearance of species and natural areas favors the appearance of diseases and pandemics.

 "

The Pandemic Factory

is the title of her film, the genesis of which she explained to

Alice Rouja.

Saving rivers in the Balkans

And in the Balkans, associations and citizens are mobilizing to save what remains of biodiversity.

Their fight targets 3,000 dam projects, and the construction of numerous hydroelectric power stations that threaten the ecosystem of wild rivers. 

On the Neretva River, one of the most beautiful rivers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, activists and scientists are working hand in hand to document the dangers of industrial development along the waterways.

This is the report by

Louis Seiller. 

Eat local

Alongside industrialization, intensive agriculture is one of the causes of biodiversity loss.

In the north of France, near the city of Amiens, an association "From seed to plate" has set itself the goal of helping city dwellers rediscover around a hundred species of plants and shrubs and the virtues of local food.

No leaflets or meetings, but an edible forest near the city center, where you can taste berries, and get information.

This is the report by

Lise Verbeke. 

Fight against massive urbanization

Third culprit of the erosion of this biodiversity, increasing urbanization.

Only a quarter of the land on the planet is unaffected by human activity.

In the Netherlands, a site has relied on humor to denounce this annoying trend which consists of concrete in one's garden, and uprooting the plants... while nearly half of the country's bees are threatened.

In the Netherlands, 

Antoine Mouteau.  

The European eye of Franceline Beretti

And we'll end this show on a political note.

On the uncertain future of all these anti-system, populist or protest parties, depending on the chosen terminology.

In Italy, the Five Star movement founded by the comic Beppe Grillo is in the process of sinking.

Added to the electoral defeats is the departure of one of its pillars, Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio, followed by around sixty deputies.

Are the anti-system parties soluble in water, as soon as they come to power?

This is the question and this is the European eye of

Franceline Beretti. 

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  • Biodiversity

  • Wildlife

  • Flora

  • Health and medicine

  • Bosnia and Herzegovina

  • Netherlands

  • France

  • Italy

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