“It is a wealth that lies dormant and we want to exploit it so that it comes back to life”, smiles Jean-Marc Le Clanche, president of the Chamber of Agriculture of the Pays de Lorient (partner of the study). In all, 478 hectares of wasteland are identified in this study commissioned by the Syndicat Mixte du SCoT du Pays de Lorient, made up of local elected officials. It is presented this Tuesday, December 21 to the mayors of the 27 municipalities concerned who will play a central role in the “reconquest“.
Two-thirds of “easy” wasteland to reclaim
If the town planning agency AudéLor has identified and listed the plots in detail, it is now up to the municipal teams of the communes to get in touch with the owners and take steps to ensure that these wastelands are effectively reclaimed.
“They give this to the elect, comments Evelyne Maho, member of the environmental association Tarz Heol, in Ploemeur, but, honestly, what are they going to do with it? “ She also points out that there is still a lot of work: “It’s practically piece by piece where you have to study the issue.”
– AudéLor
“We visited 635 wasteland on the ground and we met each municipality concerned by agricultural wasteland, assures Hélène Bouteloup, who carried out the study for AudéLor in nine months. The result is all the same that we have 65% of these wastelands that it is still easy and inexpensive to regain with normal means available on a farm.“
“The owners, often, are people who have not found a future buyer or who are in conflict with potential buyers, explains Jean-Marc Le Clanche, or they plan to convert the land into building so they don’t want to rent. There are a whole bunch of reasons that we have to assess, we have to lift the taboo and put this land back to exploitation.“
Land for whom?
“We have a lot of requests for installation in vegetable production, reveals the president of the Chamber of Agriculture of the Pays de Lorient, so we owe it to them to find land for them and land is highly coveted. “ These reclaimed hectares are intended for these new farmers, or for current farms to make extensions.. They could also serve as “compensation” for communities which artificialize agricultural land for real estate projects.
“We will move into a stage of zero artificialization in a short time, continues the farmer, we will no longer be able to consume land as we used to consume. “ It is this environmentalist inclination of the approach that appeals to Evelyne Maho: “I find that quite positive, it is an approach that would not have existed 15 or 20 years ago.”