Par Murielle Bouchard
Published on 2 22nd October at 11:32 am
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Summon the port du Havre (Seine-Maritime)it means systematically thinking about container traffic, industry, the cruise terminal … Rarelyenvironment. Yet, “out of 10,000 hectares of the port district, 2,500 hectares in Le Havre are part of the natural zone. A quarter of the port area is dedicated to the conservation of biodiversity ”. Florian Weyer, Deputy General Manager of Haropa Port Le Havre, agrees that few people in Le Havre know and recognize the work of the environment department consisting of eight people. And for good reason, it focuses on areas where human activity cannot take place, places that are also protected from the public. Natacha Massu, head of the environment department, and Pierre Beaudoin, ecologist, show us some examples of the achievements in these areas where calm and nature reign.
“When we destroy, we have an obligation to recreate”
Avoiding, reducing and compensating the impact on the environment… Three verbs to summarize what the law currently requires on companies setting up in the territory of the port of Le Havre. According to Natacha Massu, it was the 2008 reform that “even if things had been done before, launched the long-term consideration of sustainable development and conservation of species in port areas”. In fact, in the long term because the commitment lasted over 30 years!
“In practice today, when a company sets up and takes 10 hectares of natural area, it has to recreate and then compensate for another 10 hectares in addition to limiting the effects of its installation and reducing them. The prefect gives the authorization to operate for 30 years, the port with the state agrees measures in terms of compensation, the company that sets up participates financially. And logically… when we go out it’s like a gîte we have to clean everything up! ”
So concretely … examples!
Port 2000 is staggered to preserve an orchid
–When the decision is made to create Port 2000, the impact on the flora is evident. “The most famous orchid in France at the time was the Liparis de Loesel. If we had built Port 2000 as we planned, we would have destroyed the orchid. We have reduced the impact by moving Port 2000 to preserve the species. »The preserved space that constitutes« the first blades of Porto 2000 »covers 70 hectares!
–But that’s not all about this space. The creation in 2006 of a resting place for birds on a dune at high tide (a pond with islets in the interior separated from the Seine by a dune) extending over forty hectares is a compensatory measure in connection with Port 2000. Sometimes birds can be counted in the thousands, migratory species but not only, protected species.
Who determines whether these measures work or not?
The monitoring is carried out by specialists who carry out inventories in complete autonomy: the Botanical Conservatory of Bailleul and the Maison de l’Estuaire for bird counting. “Collectively, we are all satisfied with this result,” says Natacha Massu.
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Millennium: after the chemical factory, the return of natural space!
–“A relatively rare restorative exercise. This is how Natacha Massu describes the almost completed restoration of the former chemical factory, Millennium Le Hode. “Once upon a time the most polluting companies were kept away from the population. Millennium La Hode, which produced metals, then settled in the middle of Hode’s lawn. He dumped acidic waters, as he called them, into the Seine. The factory was closed in the 1990s. To compensate for the impacts of the Pont de Normandie 3 logistics park, “we have pledged with the state to restore this 13-hectare area. So we deconstructed the factory, it started in 2021. We excavated all the materials to return to the natural environment. The goal was to recreate a space completely comparable to the adjacent reserve “. Almost € 1.5 million has been invested in this way.
“The promotion to the public still needs to be completed, in particular through a path also equipped with an observatory for the general public”, explains Pierre Beaudoin. The occasion, why not to see storks in spring on the fifteen stopping points installed on site.
–Due to the unusual little story, in the port of Le Havre, the reed bed of the natural area and its 1,000 hectares of reed bed, is the second largest reed bed in France … after the Camargue!
–A toad and hives!
–On one side a pond, on the other a meadow … And in the middle a road with trucks. To preserve the pond dwellers who reproduce there and who like to roam the meadow, or toads, the port has designed a toad! “We installed a small camera to verify that it worked properly and I can tell you that it works. “
–In the immediate vicinity of this toad, therefore, in a meadow where cows graze peacefully [NDLR : 45 hectares sont actuellement consacrés à l’éco-pâturage avec des boucs, ânes, moutons]in the tall grass gravitate black bees and … hives installed since 2016.
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–Other compensation measures are envisaged, in particular in relation to the construction of the cat flap. Impossible to know more for the moment, the fact remains that Natacha Massu insists: “Today we have made sure that not thinking about the environment anymore when we have an industrial project is simply no longer profitable! Without a commitment, companies therefore run the risk of depriving themselves of important subsidies.
From Port 2000 passing through the resting place on the dunes, on Wednesday 5 October a walk is proposed to show how the wealth of local biodiversity and the means used by the port to preserve it are enhanced. Info and reservations: ici. –
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