Climate change and the irrevocable loss of ecosystems threaten global stability and decide the Ministry of the Armed Forces to step up on the subject with a strategy in favor of biodiversity.
The army is going green. Not just for the color des feet trellis, but now also that of sustainable development and more specifically the biodiversity. A strategic plan in this direction was indeed unveiled on September 9 by the Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly. It is part of the more global framework of Green deal for Europe, from version 3 of the national biodiversity strategy and commitments in favor of the protection of 30% of land and sea spaces by 2030, made by Emmanuel Macron during the fourth edition of the One Planet Summit.
Global stability called into question
The relationship between armies and biodiversity is not a priori obvious and yet: the climate change and the irrevocable loss ofecosystems have and will have more and more important consequences for global stability. All the more so in a context of demographic growth of the world population estimated by the UN at 8.5 billion people in 2030.
In 2020, 30 million people were displaced by natural disasters, three times more than by armed conflict
Rising temperatures, sea level rise, health risks with spread of disease infectious, fivefold increase in natural disasters over the past 50 years … so many factors likely to favor theemergence conflicts or crises. They are fueling tensions around crucial issues of access to natural resources, particularly water and energy, and causing significant migrations of populations. ” In 2020, 30 million people were displaced as a result of natural disasters, i.e. three times more than in armed conflicts », Underlines François Gemenne, co-director of the Defense Observatory and Weather.
The role of France and its armed forces
In this context, France, which has the 2e maritime domain and is home to 10% of the world’s biodiversity, necessarily has a role to play. Hence this ministerial strategy for preserving biodiversity and its budget of 3.6 million euros allocated to increasing knowledge in this area, reducing the impact of the armed forces on natural areas while preserving their operational capacities and to develop possibilities for anticipating crises. The commitment of the Ministry of the Armed Forces is not new since in 2016 had been created a Defense and Climate Observatory, that 80% of the 275,000 hectares managed benefit from specific protection measures in favor of biodiversity and that the institution collaborates in 3 programmes LIFE in favor of biodiversity on military land. In 2020, Florence Parly had also already presented an energy strategy to reduce dependence on fuels fossils.
Innovations in favor of biodiversity
According to Hervé Grandjean, spokesperson for the French Ministry of the Armed Forces, “ With a budget multiplied by 12 in 5 years, clearly defined and measurable ambitions, this ministerial strategy corresponds to a desire to give a real boost to these essential questions concerning national defense “. Six hundred and fifty advisers trained within the various institutions of the ministry are thus responsible for disseminating the strategy but also for proposing local actions. All managed by the Heritage, Memory and Archives Department (DPMA). Numerous agreements have also been signed with recognized ecological partners such as the National Museum of Natural History, the League for the protection of birds (LPO), the French Biodiversity Office or the Federation of Conservatories of Natural Areas.
One of the objectives of this strategy is in particular to improve knowledge of the natural heritage, its interactions with military activities in order to in fine reduce their environmental footprint. For example, the ministry is experimenting with Wall of bubbles to reduce the noise pollution under water. Of the’air blown into pipes pierced at the bottom of the water creates a kind of acoustic barrier for the mammals sailors during the explosion of old ammunition or against the waves of sonars from submarines. On terre, the helicopters adapt their training trajectory depending on the nesting sites of the bearded vulture, one of the largest boys from wildlife European almost endangered.
Birds and plankton to anticipate problems
The department’s desire is also to develop decision-support tools to better anticipate problems and thus be able to act more quickly and more effectively. The French Navy thus participates, for example, in Kivi Kuaka. Some cash birds such as the Alaskan Curlew (Kivi in Polynesian) or the Barge Barge (Kuaka in Maori) adapt their migration according to the arrival of natural disasters. The study of their behavioral response would therefore provide early warning systems. The study of plankton in the Pacific Ocean also goes in this direction. As a result of climate change, their diversity and spatial distribution are changing and with them, tuna resources who feed on it but also suddenly the fleets of peaches, part of whose activity is likely to move in international waters, little or not controlled. The stakes are ecological, since it threatens the sustainable management of resources, as well as geopolitical, because the situation can be a source of conflicts between States.
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