Marathon of biodiversity

By project NACAO

Published on 30 April 2024

France

Rhône-Alpes

Bourg-en-Bresse

About this good practice

In France, 70% of hedges have disappeared in the last 75 years, mainly due to a change in farming practices. Hedges are crucial places for biodiversity as they represent both a haven and a transit place for species. In contrast, ponds host a biodiversity specific to wet places. Both are necessary to water regulation, soils conservation, agriculture and farming.
The local Water Agency holds a yearly call for projects around water and biodiversity to restore water and land wildlife bridges. A local administration – CC Saône-Beaujolais – responded with an innovative challenge: Marathon of Biodiversity. It paved the way for a new call for projects at the Water Agency and new “marathons” all over the territory. This good practice presents how another territory – Grand Bourg Agglomération – took the opportunity of the Marathon of Biodiversity to cooperate around biodiversity with a variety of stakeholders.
The main objective of the project is to have corridors where wildlife can live or migrate.
This general objective - to be reached by the end of 2025 - is threefold:
• Define places where ecological continuity must be restored
• Achieve 42 km of hedges restored or created.
• Achieve the restoration or creation of 42 ponds.
The Marathon of Biodiversity is the first step of an integrated and long-term biodiversity strategy. Cooperation is at the heart of Marathon of biodiversity: experts, citizens, farmers and local administration work hand in hand.

Resources needed

760 000€, funded at 70% by the Water Agency and at 30% by the local territory

14 stakeholders signed the general agreement: representatives of territories, institutional partners, experts and unions.
Schools and citizens are involved during cooperative works to plant hedges or as landowners.

Evidence of success

There is a strong cooperation between all the stakeholders and this paved the way for future collaborations around biodiversity in Grand Bourg Agglomération.
In December 2023, there were already 15 km of hedges and 21 ponds restored.

At a bigger scale:
• The first marathon is finished (Communauté de Communes Saône Beaujolais)
• 10 marathons started in the territory covered by the Water Agency

Potential for learning or transfer

The legal framework is set by the rules of the Water Agency: a tax is collected for each cubic meter of water consumed. This grants the Agency funds that can be allocated to projects, depending on the strategy decided by the board.
“Marathon of Biodiversity” is a specific call for project designed by the Rhone-Mediterranean-Corsica Water Agency which aims to fund around 70% of the necessary budget to the project.
The Call for Projects funds come from a water tax, but it could be another funding.
The call for projects can be easily replicated.
There is a lot of administrative work to sign the agreements.
Technical feasibility is decided at a very local scale: having experts helped defining priorities, specific NGOs were useful to convince several types of project owners.