Marjolaine Villey-Migraine: “Industrial wind turbines and biodiversity are incompatible”

La Lodévoise Marjolaine Villey-Migraine et le collectif seront fixés en mars, avec des verdicts rendus en cassation et en correctionnelle. A.M.

The collective for the protection of landscapes and biodiversity 34-12 is demanding that the courts dismantle the 9 machines in the Bernagues wind farm in Lunas.

Marjolaine Villey-Migraine, can we recall the long fight that you are waging with associations concerning the Bernagues wind farm ?

It is a fight of more than 20 years for the collective for the protection of landscapes and biodiversity which brings together 50 associations of Hérault and the association Vigilance Patrimoine Paysager et Naturel which supports it. First, to prevent the construction of these 9 industrial wind turbines between Lunas, Les Plans and Lodève from the first building permit granted in 2004. There was then a second in 2013, which was also cancelled by the Council of State in 2017. Since then, we have been asking the developer ERL Groupe Valeco in court to dismantle these machines.

Where are we at ?

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After several twists and turns during the trials, we obtained a first victory in 2024 and a decision that asked the developer, who no longer has a permit but still has the operating authorization, to dismantle his wind turbines before March 9, 2025. We are awaiting the decision of the Court of Cassation next month next.

And there is also a criminal trial after the death of a Golden Eagle ?

Yes, the hearing was held on January 22 at the Montpellier Criminal Court. We are civil parties with six associations after the death of the male of the pair of Golden Eagles that lived on the Escandorgue, killed by a wind turbine blade on January 10, 2023. This accident comes after the death of more than 1,000 birds and bats, including 77 protected species, officially declared on this site since 2016. The prosecutor requested that the ERL company be sentenced to: €750,000 with a suspended sentence of €500,000, plus €150,000 to the manager, with a suspended sentence of €100,000. The judgment will be delivered on March 19. We hope that this decision will mark a turning point in the fight for respect for biodiversity.

There are also in the Heart of Hérault the 31 wind turbines of Aumelas which are the subject of a trial…

That's it. After alerting the prefect with the LPO, France Nature Environnement sued EDF Renouvelable and its subsidiaries that manage this large park for the mortality of protected species, kestrels and other hen harriers despite the measures taken. FNE won in the civil case and the trial is continuing in the criminal case. After the indictments, the result will be known again in March, on the 17th.

That means that industrial wind power and biodiversity are incompatible ?

Completely. Developers continue to install or rebuild machines on mountain ridges and forest edges in France, which goes against the recommendations of the French Foundation for Biodiversity, the World Bank, the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) and our associations. This fight that we are waging on Bernagues is emblematic of all these projects, and there are many on the Escandorgue, which disfigure our landscapes. We are not against the energy transition, but not this one and not like that.

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