The Rhône Méditerranée Corse Water Agency releases 10 M€ for biodiversity projects

FRANCE. On Tuesday 26 October 2021, the Rhône Méditerranée Corse Water Agency launched a new call for projects as part of its "Sauvons l'eau 2019-2024" programme, which provides for €2.64 billion in financial aid over this period to help territories adapt to climate change. This includes €504m to restore rivers, wetlands and marine habitats and preserve biodiversity.

With a budget of €10 million, the consultation is aimed at local authorities, nature protection associations, conservatories and managers of natural areas, private foundations, State public establishments and industrialists who are taking action to restore the biodiversity of aquatic and wetland environments. Actions in favour of the preservation or restoration of marine environments are however excluded from this call.

The winners will see their project financed up to 70% of the total cost of "restoration work on dry and wet habitats that contribute to the achievement of good water status, while aiming first and foremost to restore the overall functioning of ecosystems within the turquoise network (see box below)*", states a press release. The objective is to "set up ecological corridors to promote the movement of species that are closely dependent on the quality of the aquatic environments concerned".

The Rhone-Mediterranean-Corsica Water Agency has already financed, through calls for projects, fifty-four projects for 7.4 M€ in 2020 and forty for 5.5 M€ in 2021.

The Turquoise Weave in question   The turquoise framework is the space necessary for aquatic and wetland biodiversity. It is made up of dry and wet natural spaces (wetlands, watercourses, lawns, meadows forests, etc.) as well as linear or specific plant formations (hedges, ponds, etc.). It corresponds to areas where the green and blue webs interact very strongly. It constitutes an ecological corridor conducive to the movement and reproduction of species.