Historical condemnation in France of poachers in protected waters

Text by: RFI Follow

They had illegally caught tons of fish - groupers, sea urchins and octopus - in the protected waters of the Calanques national park: four poachers were sentenced this Friday in Marseille, in the south-east of France, to pay more than 385,000 euros in damages paid for ecological damage caused to the ecosystem.

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A historic decision, believes the lawyer of the national park of Calanques, master Sébastien Mabile, since the poachers are not condemned to refund the market value of the caught fish, but well is well to pay for "the ecological damage", in other words for damage to biodiversity.

" This condemnation recognizes that the intrinsic value of biodiversity, that is to say its existence value, is much higher than its market value, that is to say its use value for its fish at price of fish on the scale of the fishmonger, explains the lawyer. This is a considerable advance since it is the first time for a case of this magnitude that the court applies the principles stemming from the 2016 law - the law for the recovery of biodiversity - which had introduced ecological damage within the Civil Code. "

The president of the park Didier Réault also underlines the educational vocation of this condemnation. “ We hope that this is a message that is passed on to the whole population and to all those who would tend to destroy nature. They must understand that this nature has value. So we are in this logic of raising awareness also by example ”, he underlines.

Park officials say: since this case is before the courts, poaching has decreased in the creeks.

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