The Senate tackles the encrustation of natural spaces

Free, deliver, the wild fauna of the forests. The right-wing majority Senate will examine Monday, January 10 a bill aimed at limiting the encrustation of natural spaces, accused of disfiguring the French countryside, but also of promoting drifts in certain hunting practices.

In the Sologne forest alone, in Loir-et-Cher, there are between 3,000 and 4,000 kilometers of fences. Hermetic enclosures that can be found from Picardy to Landes, via Normandy or Brenne. They would harm biodiversity, deer, hinds, wild boars and roe deer forced to evolve in isolation.

The text is carried by Senator LR du Loiret Jean-Noël Cardoux, president of the Hunting and Fishing study group. It was clarified and completed in committee with the aim of arriving at a “balanced” bill, its rapporteur Laurent Somon (LR) told AFP.

Protect the passage of wildlife

For Sophie Primas, LR president of the Economic Affairs Committee, “combating the imprisonment of nature behind fences must bring us all together, hunters, owners and walkers”.

The text thus aims to prohibit high fences following 2005 (date of the law relating to the development of rural territories), to define new models of fences better integrated into the natural environment, and to abolish hunting enclosures.

The fences must not exceed 1.20 m in height and must allow the passage of wildlife on the ground. The text provides that they cannot injure or be used to trap game, while allowing the protection of crops, forest regeneration as well as the maintenance of fences of public interest (major transport axes, military sites, etc.).

The deadline for compliance would be seven years, with in the event of non-compliance a penalty of 3 years in prison and a fine of 150,000 euros. The agents of the French Biodiversity Office (OFB) will be able to check the enclosures prior to 2005 which will remain.

Strengthen private property

Another flagship provision of the text: to compensate for the lowering of fences and encourage their disappearance, the bill creates a 5th class offense (fine up to 1,500 euros) for entering private rural or forest property.

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The fight once morest the encrustation of natural spaces is also a concern of the National Assembly. The LREM deputy of Dear François Cormier-Bouligeon notably tabled last month a bill aiming to “fight once morest the encrustation of French forests”, via the prohibition of “animal carnage” which is practiced there.