Three top environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) boycotted a meeting with the government on Tuesday. They’re tired of the, according to them, disregard for the environment by French President Emmanuel Macron.
FNE, an association of 3,500 French environmental groups, said in a statement they refused to attend because of what they said was the government’s lack of environmental action and their closeness to farming, hunting and other lobbies.
“Since the start of Macron’s mandate, there have been lots of lovely speeches about climate and environment, but very little action and in fact a lot of regression,” said Arnaud Schwartz, the head of France Nature Environnement (FNE).
Allain Bougrain Dubourg, president of the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO), said there was a complete disconnect between good intentions professed by the government and the reality on the ground.
“Macron does not hunt, but somehow the hunting lobby has managed to make him believe that if he wants to appeal to rural France he needs to give presents to the hunters,” Dubourg said.
He’s against a government order that will again allow the hunting of turtle doves, a protected species, as well as the decision to suspend controversial glue trapping of songbirds for a year rather than banning it.
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