Manifesto for a living Camargue
The Camargue is beautiful and attractive thanks to the development efforts of those who generate wealth there.
These are the people involved in agriculture and livestock farming, industry, tourism, hunting and fishing, services, trade and transport – all the businesses that have set up there to sustain the region, generating income, jobs and cultural heritage. They are the craftspeople and artists, and all its inhabitants who admire it every day.
The landscapes they have shaped are the result of long experience and a ceaseless commitment to shaping the environment.
In the Camargue, nature is the product of a culture. It exists thanks to a very ancient civilisation – yet one that remains very much alive and dynamic – which constantly engages with its environment, the constraints it imposes, and the opportunities it offers.
None of the Camargue’s economic stakeholders can accept that it should now be the subject of a policy of retreat and abandonment.
To accept ‘renaturation’ – that is to say, abandonment – in the name of climate change is to condemn the living, economically productive Camargue to extinction.
Salt remains a valuable resource and an asset for the Camargue. The threat it poses can easily be contained and managed if there is a will to do so. For the economy, jobs, the landscape, birds and biodiversity. For everyone, in fact.
The Camargue can be protected if we are determined to do so.
Having been present in the Camargue for one hundred and fifty years and having played a key role in its development, the Salins du Midi company has decided to continue to devote its considerable resources to safeguarding a vibrant and dynamic Camargue.
Essential to France’s food, energy and strategic sovereignty, Salins du Midi is committed, alongside all stakeholders in the Camargue who wish to join us, to protecting a Camargue that is not only productive but also safeguards its landscapes, jobs, wealth and natural environment.
We call on all those who wish to see the Camargue remain vibrant to join us.
Hubert François, Chairman of Salins Group
