While violence has escalated, resistance intensifies in Testet against the proposed construction of the Sivens dam. Five Forest/Wetland defenders have been buried into the roadway with only their heads and shoulders above ground in an effort to halt the destruction of a wetland area of 13 hectares, a jewel of biodiversity where 94 protected species live.
Despite the stubbornness of the authorities to continue clearing this morning, formidable ecological opposition extends throughout the region and beyond.
Sunday, Sept. 7, nearly a thousand people gathered at the scene peacefully to express their opposition to this archaic and environmentally damaging project.
Opponents of the project are motivated by the disappearance of wetlands and denounce the irrigated agricultural model. They denounce an outdated vision of agriculture. According to them, a wetland is the result of a long natural process and they denounce the overall cost of the dam whose construction is estimated by the General Council to € 8.4 million and annual operating costs estimated by Opponents of more than 300,000 euros.
On Tuesday the 2nd 10 zadists were injured by the French police who resumed their attacks against the occupation of the Sivens forest/wetlands in order to clear the way for developers to build a dam considered useless, even more since it implies the deforestation of 13 ha. Occupiers – naming their occupation ZAD, zone à défendre meaning area to be defended – have been fighting the state and capitalists for a year now to save the forest; previous occupations have been brutally repressed by police, protests have been violently attacked, activists even started hunger strikes in vain to force local authorities hold public debates.
