• For several weeks, Internet users have been claiming that mooring boxes to accommodate 24-meter yachts in the Gulf of Ajaccio are financed by the government's green fund.
  • If financing these huge polluting boats with a fund aimed at ecology seems absurd, it is nevertheless very real. The project benefits from 521,000 euros of public funds.
  • If the objective is to protect the seabed by preventing these yachts from anchoring anywhere, for the various associations, the method chosen is no less devastating.

The news has been circulating for several weeks on social networks: mooring boxes to accommodate 24-meter yachts, in the Gulf of Ajaccio, would be financed largely by the government's green funds. "The absurdity is at its peak," wrote one user on Twitter. Indeed, many environmental activists, or ordinary French citizens, find the information "too big to be true". "How can we finance the holidays of big polluters with a fund intended for ecology, including the preservation of our seas and our seabed?" asks one of them. And yet, it's all true.

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On April 3, the Prime Minister presented the winners of the Green Fund, created last summer to finance green projects. "With the Green Fund, the government is determined to take action to face the ecological challenges facing us. Ecological planning calls for common, ambitious action and is embodied in concrete projects," explained Elisabeth Borne at the time.

Among the beneficiaries of this 2 billion euros of aid: the installation of two buoys in the Gulf of Ajaccio, to allow yachts over 24 meters to moor without anchoring and preserve underwater seagrass fields. Thanks to 521,000 euros of public funds, luxurious boats will be able to stop in the area. A project led by the chamber of commerce and industry of the island which has a total cost of 664,000 euros.



The Ministry of Ecological Transition, which manages the file, said: "Currently, Corsican island ports, insufficiently equipped, are unable to respond to the increasing attendance of large pleasure boats (more than 24 meters)". So far, these imposing boats anchor off the island of Beauty. A practice destructive to underwater biodiversity.

Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister of Energy Transition, was also questioned on the subject at the microphone of France Info. She said at the time that this "serves to preserve the biodiversity of Corsican waters", especially posidonia. These seagrass beds are home to a very rich biodiversity, and can store massive amounts of carbon: they represent less than 0.2% of the surface of the oceans but account for 10% of the carbon absorbed annually by them.

A more ecological system or simple "privatization of the sea"?

The cause then seems rather noble. However, some doubt that this type of mooring is really more environmentally friendly than the simple "anchor jet" offshore. The Corsican environmental protection association U Levante, in particular, disputes the ecological virtues attributed to these mooring boxes, weighted by a concrete block of several tons placed on the bottom of the sea. Indeed, the question arises: how would a concrete block destroy the seabed less than a boat anchor? The answer given by the CCI of Corsica, leader of the project, is that this block is holed, thus allowing a better respect for underwater biodiversity.

The majority of associations reject this argument. Added to this is the pollution caused by yachts, not to mention the problematic location of moorings. The vast majority are located in so-called marine protected areas facing emblematic terrestrial sites: natural parks and Natura 2000 sites. These places are classified in order to preserve a specific biodiversity, which is sometimes endangered. "These organized moorings are therefore destructive of marine fauna and flora: instead of protecting biodiversity, they will accentuate its collapse," says U Levante.

What also stucks is the fact of financing the development of yacht tourism in the name of biodiversity. Various activists denounce a new example of the "pro-business ecology" led by the government. For its part, the association U Levante denounces for several months "a process of urbanization and privatization of the sea", in the poorest region of metropolitan France.

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  • Ecology
  • Corsican
  • Yacht
  • Investment
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