A boarded-up building covered in tires and manure in Beauvais on Monday 18 November, offices ransacked and agents insulted in Guéret on Tuesday 19… The French Biodiversity Office (OFB), whose 2,000 agents are very visible on the ground, is once more in the sights of some farmers. Its general director, Olivier Thibault, understands the need for clarity in the rules, but asks not to make the OFB a scapegoat.
How do you characterize the recent attacks against the OFB?
Compared to the demonstrations at the beginning of the year, new steps have been taken. First there was a near attack on an agent. [fin octobre dans le Tarn-et-Garonne]. He came to talk to the farmers and someone took the nuts off the wheels of his car. He could have had a serious accident. And in Guéret there was an intrusion on the premises. The door was broken down and people searched for documents to try to avoid court proceedings. What is being attacked is the rule of law.
We are aware that not all farmers are responsible for these actions. And we know the difficulties that part of the sector faces: the OFB spends its time working with farmers, trying to find solutions. There is no OFB or ecology on the one hand, nor agriculture on the other. Agriculture is the first victim of climate change. If we want to produce food, we need a good environment and work together. This makes it even more difficult to find yourself erected as a totem of problems or a symbol of difficulties.
Why is the OFB attacked?
We are almost the only state agents working in the environment and who are in physical contact with rural residents. The OFB are 2,000 people who spend their lives outdoors. They have uniforms, they are on the ground, they are visible. It’s easier to touch them than to touch someone you don’t know who is hiding behind a screen. Checks on the common agricultural policy are carried out by satellite observations, other checks are carried out by tax returns.
Farmers say they are tightly controlled and severely punished, although controls are few and penalties often light…
Farmers have the feeling that they can be harshly punished for things they do not consider serious, although in reality the maximum penalties are never applied. And many tell us that they were treated like criminals because they were summoned to a hearing and had to justify themselves, although in the end they only had a simple reminder of the law.
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