In 2020 France created the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB) which has been given sweeping powers to enforce environmental laws. Its nationwide police force has 3000 agents charged with protecting French species in order to revive declining biodiversity in the county and its territories. Damaging the habitat of protected animals such as bats is a misdemeanor that carries a penalty of 150,000 Euros and three years in prison.
In recent years, animals have begun to be incorporated into cultural heritage. France has subsequently passed a law protecting the “sensory heritage of the countryside.” In the aftermath of the tragic Notre Dame fire, a beekeeper was allowed access to care for the bees living on the rooftop. The Ministry of Culture insists on provisions for biodiversity on all work done on cultural monuments.
Excerpted from The Atlantic Weekly Planet, McHugh, May 2, 2024
