France: the Calanques National Park, a site to be preserved
The Calanques de Marseille massif extends over more than 20 km long by 4 km wide and culminates at 565 m at Mont Puget.
Getty Images / Photographer's Choice / Sylvain Grandadam
Text by: Corinne Binesti
5 mins
The Calanques National Park, a public establishment created in 2012, is a protected site which covers 8,300 hectares of land and 43,000 hectares at sea. While the Union congress has just ended in Marseille. International Organization for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), to act against the degradation of ecosystems, this Mediterranean jewel is still too often damaged by a dumping of waste.
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It is a vast expanse of blue, nestled in the heart of a monumental massif where the cicadas sing.
From the islands of Frioul to La Ciotat, the Calanques National Park of Marseille, a wonder of the Mediterranean, offers visitors paradise corners where beaches and coves offer crystal clear waters.
However, these beautiful carved in the limestone rock, with very jagged profiles, sometimes try with difficulty to keep their proud appearance. Because for several years, waste has too often littered this site, a territory renowned for the beauty of its landscapes, its natural spaces and the richness of its biodiversity recognized as exceptional by the international scientific community. Also, a network of associations coordinated by the Calanques National Park is committed to the zero waste crusade.
Éric Akopian, president of the association "Clean my Calanques", says that 32 tons of waste have already been collected since 2017. The association brings together 200 volunteers who clean and collect, throughout the year, an incalculable number of cigarette butts, plastic bags and others containing, sometimes even syringes: "
On August 1, a ton and a half of waste was collected in two hours in a cove and 800
kg were removed on the beach of Catalans,
specifies Eric, who notes, however, that the garbage left on the creeks is not only the responsibility of unseemly tourists.
"
In winter, waste is also present
",
he assures.
Francis Talin, responsible for the education, culture and social development pole at the Calanques National Park, organizes a whole program of events to fight for the preservation of the site.
He specifies that 70% of visitors to the creeks are inhabitants of the metropolis.
For him, the question of maintenance is much more complex: “
Those who take the park for a trash can are the same individuals who do not hesitate to throw their waste out of their car window.
"
While nearly 25 environmental inspectors are employed by the Calanques National Park, they play a police role and strive to ensure that the regulations are respected.
Waste collection has collected 32 tonnes of waste since 2017. © Corinne Binesti / RFI
Permanent awareness
The increase in traffic to the site has tripled, from 1 million to 3 million per year in four years.
Robert, a diving instructor from Marseille, grew up in Sormiou, one of the creeks in the park.
This year, the diver has seen numbers of up to 2,000 people per day on
"
His
"
calanque while the estimated capacity is 250 people for a cove 120 meters long and 3 meters wide.
The
inhabitants are convinced that the publicity made around the Calanques National Park, since its creation in 2012, only worsens the increase in attendance and waste.
A false problem, according to Francis Talin, who believes that even if there is a "park effect", the problem of waste should not be correlated with the increase in frequentation:
"the creeks have always had an aura. important and has been since the 1920s,
he says.
But for me, the increase in attendance has been significant since the mid-1990s, with the arrival of the TGV, then in 2013, with Marseille, the capital of culture, the opening of Mucem, and television series. All added to a very strong urbanization of the French coast.
"
The protected space of the creeks would have become a residual natural space in a massive urbanization.
In forty years, Marseille has indeed doubled its urbanization area.
And if garbage invades the land, it also invades the sea.
Underwater canyons, treasure of the abyss
Since its creation, the Calanques National Park has imposed certain rules, such as no-fishing zones.
A positive point for the marine fauna which sees an increase in the diversity of its species.
On the other hand, if it is forbidden to fish in certain places, boaters drop anchor anywhere, harming Posidonia, a plant essential to our survival since it absorbs CO2 and releases a lot of oxygen.
A plant that takes 100 years to grow.
"It's the mistral and the large canyons that still save us
," says Robert the diving instructor.
But for how long
?
Because under the creeks, in fact, canyons form deep indentations which descend to the abyss, at more than 1,500 meters deep, allowing organic matter and oxygen to circulate between the surface of the sea and the sea. background. And in mistral weather, the strong winds also bring a mixing between the waters which cleans the sea.
For the time being, in the abyss of these creeks, Europe has counted 14 habitats of Community interest, that is to say considered rare and fragile.
An abundant life that benefits many fish.
As proof, a fin whale, the second largest living animal on the planet after the blue whale, was seen offshore during confinement.
For the defenders of nature, only a permanent sensitization among the populations will know how to prevent the phenomena of ecological disasters.
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