Report “Conditions met to have new trees”: in the Sugiton cove, quotas against overtourism are starting to have an effect

For three years, reservation quotas have been in place for the Sugiton cove, near Marseille. The site has suffered greatly from overcrowding, and the scars are still visible.

In this month of August, nature is sometimes put to the test by tourism, or rather overtourism, when there are too many people in the same place. An emblematic example in France : the Sugiton cove, near Marseille. Due to overcrowding, the number of visitors has been limited to 400 per day in the summer for three years. A system that is now well established. It is impossible to enter without a QR code. “It’s a hassle to have to think about booking, but it allows you to continue to enjoy the beauty of nature”observes Cécile, who has come to visit.

Tourists and locals are understanding. It must be said that the cove is suffering and it shows. The roots of the Aleppo pines are exposed. “They’re going to have more difficulty accessing water, and that’s going to potentially expose them to pathogens.”explains Antonin Druon, one of Sugiton’s eco-guards. This is one of the effects of erosion caused by visitors, who numbered up to 2 500 every day before the quotas were introduced. “It’s really the trampling that caused all the vegetation to disappear. We’ve lost about 80 centimetres of soil in ten years here, it’s enormous.”

Old weakened trees and very few young pines. But since 2022, mandatory reservations have allowed the vegetation to revive, rejoices Antonin Druon, showing a small two-year-old pine. “This means that we have the conditions that are right for them to grow, so that finally, we can have new trees in this cove. It’s a great success.”

But it will take years before we see the pines, pistachio trees, honeysuckle or dwarf lettuce, which only lives on the Provençal coast, grow back.

As for the fauna, it’s the same. “In front of us, there were two yellow-legged gulls, which is a protected species, and behind, on another rock, there were two cormorants,” describe Clementine Tacchinoanother eco-guard.

They too have suffered from overtourism, and in particular from noise. “The overcrowding and sometimes even the noise pollution can disturb them. All around us, we still see a strong presence of cliffs, rocks. This will really accentuate the noise, and it can have an impact on the wildlife that can nest in these same cliffs. They risk going elsewhere.”

Hence the ban on speakers in the cove. It is also mandatory to stay on the marked path to limit the impact of visitors. Rules that are very often well respected, except in a few rare cases, explain the eco-guards of Sugiton.