“We're not really occupying the trees out of choice, but because it's the only way to make ourselves heard.” Bertrand* and his fellow protestor Maka* were explaining why they were part of a group of campaigners perched at the top of a plane tree on Rue de l’Estacade in Compiègne, north of Paris, last Wednesday. Their environmental protest did not continue for much longer; in the early afternoon of Thursday, these “squirrels” - as they have been dubbed by fellow campaigners - came down after being evicted by the police. Two people were arrested and taken into custody, one for “organising an unauthorised protest”, the other for “threatening police officers”.
The location for the protest had been chosen to raise awareness about the felling of trees near the construction site for a new canal, and above all to criticise what the protestors see as the pointlessness of a huge project. Some 107 kilometres or 66 miles in length, and measuring 54 metres wide, the Seine-Nord Canal will stretch from Compiègne to Aubencheul-au-Bac, near Cambrai, in the north of France, an hour's drive from the Belgian border. Completion is scheduled for 2030. Funded by the European Union and local authorities, it is a key link in the Seine-Scheldt inland waterway network linking France with Belgium and the Netherlands.
To oppose the project, five people set up their hammocks in the treetops in Rue de l’Estacade on the night of Tuesday, January 28th. Members of the local collective 'Mega canal non merci' ('Mega Canal No Thanks') and the environmental campaign group Les Soulèvements de la terre were planning to occupy two trees indefinitely.
“We're in the middle of the tree-felling period [editor's note, in the construction area], so even though these particular trees are not affected by the project, the goal is to raise awareness of the fight,” explained Pana*, a member of Les Soulèvements de la terre and a student at the University of Technology of Compiègne (UTC). “The idea is to get as much visibility as possible. It's not far from the Maison du Canal so it's really a kind of publicity stunt to encourage people, the media and political figures to come and see for themselves.”
Enlargement : Illustration 1
The Maison du Canal building, run by the project’s main contractor, the Société du Canal Seine-Nord Europe (SCSNE), offers local residents information about the scheme. Meanwhile not far away, on the outskirts of the town, infrastructure work has been underway for several months. Compiègne is one of the first areas affected. While the actual digging of the canal has yet to begin, land clearing and tree felling have taken place. After thirty years languishing in the files of local authorities, the very first works in fact finally started in 2022.
The scheme - whose dossier runs to nearly 13,000 pages - was first officially designated a project for the 'public benefit' in 2008. It includes three aqueducts, one of which will be 1.3 kilometres (0.8 miles) in length, the construction of 62 bridges, and the development of four inland ports.
“This is a project rooted in ultra-capitalism - large-scale, long-distance freight transport - which goes completely against what we'd like: a focus on local transport, limiting long-distance shipping to products that are difficult to source,” said Bertrand as he perched on a branch. Hanging opposite him, Maka added: “It's more than about opposing a canal, we're taking a stand against a rigidly-liberal political system.”
Enlargement : Illustration 2
A public benefit of questionable benefit
At a time when road transport is being abandoned in favour of lower-emission freight options, the canal is being portrayed as “environmentally friendly”; this is its main selling point, according to the project’s developers. “Absolute nonsense,” said Bertrand. “When you look at what they claim as an ecological benefit – a 'modal shift', meaning fewer lorries on the roads - it’s simply not true.”
Yet this modal shift is indeed one of the key arguments put forward by local authorities to justify the canal. Transport by waterways is far less polluting than road transport, they argue, and the project will ease congestion. But opponents say it will just lead to an increase in freight traffic.
Samuel Delalande, a lawyer for one of the associations opposing the project, sees clear shortcomings in the plans. “The socio-economic [impact] study is somewhat out-of-date, as it goes back to 2004 and was only updated in 2014. We're looking at a project costing more than 10 billion euros in total, and it's based purely on abstract models predicting growth in traffic along the Paris-Nord corridor,” he said, referring to the northern département or county where the project will end.
In response, the SCSNE press office insists that the evaluations are fully up to date. “Market studies, traffic forecasts and socio-economic evaluations have all been carried out, updated over time, audited… No other transport project has undergone as many analyses, and these have guided the successive decisions of lawful authorities,” the company stated.
The developers, who say that when completed the scheme will create “Europe’s largest waterway network”, also claim the construction of the four inland ports along the canal will create jobs. But opponents say the scheme will not in fact provide secure employment. “For these four ports, I think there will only be insecure logistics jobs. They've overestimated the employment figures - we’ve seen it before with similar projects, such as with the port of Liège,” predicts Pana, referring to the inland Belgian port.
Consequences for biodiversity
The campaigners stopped passers-by at the foot of the occupied trees and encouraged them to take an interest in their protest. Jacques Delhay, a local resident, came to see what was happening, and was already convinced by the cause. A retired boatman who worked for a local authority on the Canal du Nord, he opposes the Seine-Nord canal project, at least in its current form. “I support expanding the canal, but not at the cost of destroying the environment. Most of all, what need is it meeting? Because no proper studies have been done,” he says regretfully.
Enlargement : Illustration 3
It is indeed the huge the scale of the project that campaigners are challenging. “We're in favour of rehabilitating existing canals and supporting inland waterways. But the scale of this is unrealistic. And it's not based on reality, because the current canal is only operating at 50% of its capacity,” explained Pana.
For Jacques Delhay, the new project is simply not worth it. “They're destroying an incredibly rich natural area and claiming they'll recreate it elsewhere. But it's not we who will pay the price for all of this destruction, but our successors, our children and our grandchildren,” he said.
A key impact of the project is the planned destruction of 3,300 hectares of fertile agricultural land. To compensate, the developers intend to create new artificial wetlands. For campaigners, this makes no sense. Their treetop protest was carried out to raise awareness but, above all, to warn the public authorities about the consequences of what they are doing.
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- The original French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Michael Streeter