Protecting Wetlands: Community Stands Against Confinement of Refugees

Nantes (Loire-Atlantique), coverage

Where once wild boars and goldfinches thrived, thousands of homes are now planned alongside a facility to detain undocumented migrants. In northeastern Nantes, the former Bêle woods, now known as the Champ-de-Manœuvre, has been experiencing increased urban development over the years.

The Champ-de-Manœuvre ZAC, featuring a wetland that feeds various city streams, is expected to see the construction of about 2,000 housing units by 2032. Nearly nine hectares of ancient trees, wet ditches, and natural habitats have already been destroyed. Of the current 50 hectares, only about six will remain ‘wild’. Additionally, adjacent to the prison, on state-owned land, a CRA with 140 places—one of the largest in France—is slated for completion by the end of 2027, covering 5 hectares.

For the past year, the Association of Residents and Friends of Beaujoire (Aralb) has been organizing bi-weekly nature walks on Sundays near the Beaujoire football stadium, in the Nantes-Erdre neighborhood. The aim is to showcase this area comprising meadows, woods, and a wetland, home to wildlife such as deer, agile frogs, palmate newts, and common noctules.

On this particular Sunday, a small group consisting of association members, families, and retirees explored a cleared plot, pausing to examine large puddles that harbored juvenile salamanders. The area, wedged between new buildings and the prison, is regularly damaged. Cleared and razed, it’s mishandled by heavy machinery creating ruts that fill with rainwater, where salamanders play but perish once the puddles dry up.

“The place is deliberately trashed, frequently cleared to prevent life from taking hold again,” Nicolas, president of Aralb, which has been active for about a decade fighting against the area’s urbanization, asserts. “It’s social engineering to foster acceptance of the project. Basically, we’ll destroy, then come tell us ‘what are you protecting? There’s nothing left!’”

The prefecture, contacted by Decatur Metro, states that the plot is classified as urbanizable and informs us that the CRA project “is currently undergoing a unique environmental authorization procedure, which includes components related to water law and protected species.” They promise a public consultation “soon.”

Aralb’s environmental activists have teamed up with those from Fury, who oppose the CRA. For them, the project contradicts the defense of life. “We defend nature and all living beings; for us, a CRA is incompatible with quality of life,” Nicolas tells Decatur Metro. “It’s a matter of human dignity since these centers detain foreign individuals without criminal conviction.”

Aralb is working with an environmental lawyer, exploring every legal avenue to stall the project. Already, volunteers have identified 56 bird species and have also managed, after persistent efforts with the metropolis, to install nets along a road where salamanders attempting to cross were being slaughtered.

However, no wildlife crossings have been constructed, and this request remains unaddressed by the metropolis. Erell Olivo, vice president of Aralb and a biologist specializing in ecosystems, dismisses the “ridiculous compensations” offered, such as a few trees replanted along the prison, a “smokescreen” supposedly for the bats in this continuously lit area by the high prison walls. She also questions the training of the urban ecologists involved in the project. “You can’t separate animal habitats from their nurseries; they need to be able to move from one place to another. These urban ecologists have no understanding of the connections between ecosystems.”

So, patiently, she educates interested residents and Fury activists about the biodiversity of the Champ-de-Manœuvre, who lament the razed woods. “The idea with this walk is to re-sensitize residents to the living world, to ‘re-nature’ people, to come with children and teach them about this nature and its importance,” the biologist summarizes to Decatur Metro.

The area designated for the CRA, called the Sleeping Wood, is a cool refuge where neighborhood residents escape during heatwaves. Hidden behind branches, the prison enclosure and watchtower loom. In this shadowy wild space bristling with brambles, where tracks of deer and wild boars can be seen on the dry ground, the implications of the detention center are discussed.

“All these millions planned for the CRA could instead be redirected to welcoming, housing, and supporting humanitarian associations and emergency shelters,” Mélina from the Bienveilleurs 44, a support association for exiled persons and member of Fury, points out during the walk.

“Of the 50 hectares of the site, 23 hectares of natural spaces—woodlands, wetlands, meadows, hedged farmlands—are preserved and highlighted,” Nantes metropolis counters on its website. “The first residents can already enjoy 24 plots of family gardens, places to walk like the wild wood, and soon, the Champ-Libre park.”

After a public consultation overwhelmingly opposed to the CRA, which all Nantes residents knew was just for show, a legal challenge is planned by the lawyers of Fury and Aralb against the project’s classification as a project of general interest (PIG) for the CRA. This marks another chapter in this prolonged struggle.

“We demand the preservation of the site, the cessation of construction, and the outright abandonment of the CRA project,” summarizes Guillaume from Aralb. “Faced with the destruction of a heritage wood, residents and environmental protection associations call for a halt to the work and a public debate, or at least a moratorium.” The awareness walk concludes by crossing the Wild Wood, bathed in sunlight, the only part that will likely escape urbanization. A great spotted woodpecker can be heard somewhere amid these tall trees, their feet still in water following the year’s heavy rains.

Meanwhile, Aralb has alternative projects in mind. Defending and preserving the neighborhood’s old farms, opening an educational farm, and if necessary, considering some light habitats at the edge of Champ-de-Manœuvre, which remains one of the last natural spaces in the heart of the metropolis.