A l'UM la science [S01-ep19]: From ecological compensation to the BricoLab at the Institut Agro

This week in A l'UM la science Sébastien Desbureaux, economist at the CEE-Mtalks about ecological compensation at the Ambatovy mine in Madagascar. In the second half of the program, Amrin returns for his start-up column. Finally, the feature sequence takes us to the Institut Agro's BricoLab in the company of Guilhem Brunel.

"Avoid - Reduce - Compensate". This motto, known in the jargon as the ERC sequence, may not ring a bell, but it has been at the heart of French ecological policy since July 1976 and the Nature Protection Act. The aim? To encourage major developers to avoid or reduce the negative impact of infrastructures and their operation on the environment and, when this is not possible, to compensate for residual impacts that could not be avoided.

A fine step forward on paper, but with very limited impact in the field due to the vagueness of the rules. It wasn't until 2012 that the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy clarified the rules, based in particular on the contributions of a working group set up in 2010 and bringing together representatives of NGOs, project owners and design offices. At the heart of these issues: better application of the principle, of course, but also better control of these applications.

And control means evaluation. How can we be sure that compensation will be fair, commensurate with the damage caused, effective in space and time, and will result in "no net loss of biodiversity"?

And in the end, isn't compensating already a loss? Doesn't that mean allowing the most powerful developers to destroy under the pretext that they might pay? In 2019, a multi-disciplinary French team led by the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle (MNHN) and others concluded, after analyzing 24infrastructure projects authorized by the French government, that for 80% of them, environmental compensation was either not demanding enough or inadequate.

And what about the rest of the world? Scientists from Bangor University in the UK and the Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement de Montpellier (CEE-M) have examined the case of theAmbatovy mining site in Madagascar, which claims to be a leader in sustainable mining. Their independent study, published in Nature Sustainability in March 2022, suggests, with a few nuances, that this strategy would have saved as much forest as was lost at the mining site.

We take a closer look at this good news with Sébastien Desbureaux from CEE-M, who took part in the study as an economics researcher.

In the second half of the show, Amrin Nagamia joins us for her start-up column, and today she tells us about the Semaxone company, creator of an innovation designed for airplane pilots.

Finally, the reportage sequence takes us straight to the Institut Agro, where a brand-new facility, the AgroFabLab, has just been inaugurated. A laboratory like no other, comprising 3 spaces: the MiamLab, the BioLab and the BricoLab. Guilhem Brunel takes us on a guided tour of this space for manual creation around digital agriculture and the environment.

At UM la science you've got the program, here we go!

Production: Université de Montpellier/Divergence FM
Animation : Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interview: Aline Périault/Lucie Lecherbonnier
Reporting and editing: Aline Périault
Production: Adeline Floch'/Anna Demeulandre

Listen to the "A LUM LA SCIENCE" program on Divergence FM 93.9