While the National Commission for Public Debate organized a series of meetings and debates, in Bonifacio, fishing, the necessary environmental protection, boating and cooperation with Sardinia were discussed.
What future for the Mediterranean? What strategies should be implemented to bring different uses together while respecting the environment? The subject is vast and complex. He took part in the public debates organized this week between Ajaccio and Bonifacio by the National Commission for Public Debate (CNDP), which has been multiplying these initiatives across the entire French coastline since November and until next March.
A large audience
Debates which the public attended in large numbers in Bonifacio on Friday afternoon, surprising even the organizers. But Bonifacio, as its mayor Jean-Charles Orsucci recalled, has 70km of coastline, marine protected areas (MPA), an environment “that fishermen wanted to safeguard from the beginning of the 1980s by imagining a reserve”… Largely enough to fuel issues which, for the elected official, must “bring human development, economic development and environmental protection in parallel, always with the notions of balance and priorities in mind”.
The priority for artisanal fishermen is to be able to continue to make a living from their profession, “but there are only 156 of us left and four trawlers in Corsica, and with all the bans, we fear seeing our profession disappear,” said summary Philippe Botti, patron of Bonifacian fishermen, pleading for “a Corsican management plan” for the sea. It will also be necessary to find the balance with recreational fishing, “even if we can no longer have gathering tourism in this area », argued Jean Michel Culioli, head of the protected areas department of the Corsican environmental office.
Towards a Corso-Sardinian MAB recognized by UNESCO?
The latter, with Giulio Plastina, director of the Maddalena National Park, and Vittorio Gazale, his counterpart from Asinara, discussed the UNESCO MAB – Man and Biosphere – cross-border reserve project between Corsica and Sardinia. , the beginnings of which were recorded last January between the two regions, and which would be the first of its kind for cross-border maritime cooperation.
Corso-Sardinian cooperation was discussed through several subjects, including the UNESCO MAB project.
Corso-Sardinian cooperation was discussed through several subjects, including the UNESCO MAB project. NICE MORNING – LUCCIONI
An idea carried into reality since 1992 with an international park project, « which was not entirely a failure, even if it lacked the political basis, because it brought us a lot from a technical point of view : it allowed us to work together on monitoring bird and fish species and even posidonia. It is now necessary for municipal elected officials, fishermen, “small” actors to support it,” defends Vittorio Gazale.
“How can we explain to our customers that the rules differ over a few kilometers even though the environment is similar? »
With Sardinia, there was also the question of mooring authorizations for pleasure craft, particularly large-scale ones, “but how can we explain to our customers that the rules differ in a few kilometers while the environment is similar? », asked a professional. This question has brought to the forefront the debate on the pleasure chests, the Posidonia herbarium, the need to regulate, the direct and indirect economic benefits of such an installation, which will certainly continue to be talked about.
Figure
8.3%
This is the percentage of marine protected areas in the Mediterranean. In Corsica, this figure rises to 50%, “but there are very few full protection zones: 0.02% in the Mediterranean and 0.86% in Corsica. The objective is to reach 10% in Corsica in 2030,” specifies Jean Michel Culioli.
