Camp Climat at Nantes

Activists cam­paign­ing against a pro­posed local air­port near Nantes, France, have announced a week of action from 3 — 9 August 2009.

“Le Camp Cli­mat” con­cept is tak­ing off over the chan­nel, just as it is in the UK. Activists cam­paign­ing against the pro­posed con­struc­tion of a new air­port 16 kilo­me­tres north of Nantes (Loire-Atlan­tique, 44) have announced a camp from the 3 — 9 August 2009.

Activists cam­paign­ing against a pro­posed local air­port near Nantes, France, have announced a week of action from 3 — 9 August 2009.

“Le Camp Cli­mat” con­cept is tak­ing off over the chan­nel, just as it is in the UK. Activists cam­paign­ing against the pro­posed con­struc­tion of a new air­port 16 kilo­me­tres north of Nantes (Loire-Atlan­tique, 44) have announced a camp from the 3 — 9 August 2009.

The air­port plans have a long his­to­ry, with the ori­gins of the plan to con­struct a “hub” for north-west France, dat­ing from 30 years ago. The pro­posed air­port will con­crete over 2000 hectares of tra­di­tion­al bocage: pas­toral land divid­ed by tra­di­tion­al hedgerows. By con­trast Britain’s sec­ond busiest air­port Gatwick occu­pies a site of only 300 hectares. And all this despite 3 air­ports already oper­a­tional (Nantes, Angers, Rennes) with­in 100 kilo­me­tres of the pro­posed sites. None of the exist­ing air­ports are oper­at­ing at any­thing like full capac­i­ty at the moment, nor will they in the future if cur­rent air tick­ets sales con­tin­ue their present down­ward trend.

Despite being beyond any rea­son­able con­cept of util­i­ty, the Pharaonique project rolls for­ward, with forced sales of farms, homes, and land. Sur­veys and geo­log­i­cal sam­pling of the site began in Octo­ber 2008.

Oppo­si­tion to the project is cen­tred on two main organ­i­sa­tions: the Camp Cli­mat, and a coali­tion that unites res­i­dent groups called ACIPA, which has long pur­sued a civ­il cam­paign amongst the French bureau­cra­cy.

As the threat becomes more immi­nent, many acts of resis­tance have already occurred: with trac­tor road­blocks and sab­o­tage of sur­vey works. A vis­it­ing offi­cial from the pre­fec­ture, come to announce the loss of land and homes, was flanned. The sur­vey work­ers now work along­side an escort of up to six­ty gen­darmes. Eight activists face fines of up to 15,000 euros and sen­tences of 2 — 4 months for their part in the resis­tance.

Le camp fonc­tion­nera de manière auto­gérée, avec pour principes de base : une empreinte écologique min­i­mum, des actions à fort impact auprès de la pop­u­la­tion locale et/ou des médias, des échanges de savoirs sur les pra­tiques alter­na­tives et écologiques, la mise en com­mun des béné­fices, la pra­tique du prix libre ou coû­tant et le développe­ment de réseaux. Il s’inscrira dans le cadre d’une semaine de résis­tance sur le site et fera suite à deux moments forts sur place : le fes­ti­val « Le Planch­er des Vach­es » (same­di 1er août) et le pique-nique annuel des opposants au pro­jet d’aéroport (dimanche 2 août).

(The basic prin­ci­ples of the autonomous camp are: a min­i­mal eco­log­i­cal foot­print, strong local links, strong media impact, edu­ca­tion­al activ­i­ties and exchanges, devel­op­ment of net­works, and com­mu­nal liv­ing with food at prix libre (con­tribute as you can afford). The camp forms part of a week of resis­tance at the site with a music fes­ti­val on the 1 August, and an annu­al local pic­nic on the 2 August.)

Notre-Dames-De-Lan­des is 202 kilo­me­tres from the fer­ry ter­mi­nal at St. Malo, which makes for a pleas­ant two day ride to be here, but Nantes is also well served by rail: the TGV from Paris (1 train/hour) takes 2h 20mins.

www.campclimat.org