► Nearly 3.2 million euros raised to help save the planet
ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECTS
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SPONSORSHIP
L’école au potager
Location: Cannes, Alpes-Maritimes
by: Méditerranée 2000
Year: Festival 2024
The Festival finances this project at a level of €35,200 (excl. VAT).
The Ecole au potager (Vegetable Garden School) project offers schools in the Alpes-Maritimes department personalised support throughout the year focused on four actions: support for school vegetable gardens thanks to assistance with implementation and upkeep, training for teachers with workshops on various themes connected to vegetable gardens and sustainable nutrition, raising awareness among children in class on subjects chosen with teachers, and the creation of a collaborative digital tool to encourage collaboration between project leaders and add value to the activities.
Regenerative agriculture in the Ambrosia Forest
Location: Villers-sur-Var, Alpes-Maritimes
By: Terres de Liens
Year: Festival 2024
The Festival finances this project at a level of €50,000 (excl. VAT).
Supported by the non-profit organisation Terres de Liens, the goal of the “Forêt d’Ambrosia” project is to create a regenerative, productive and resilient agricultural system. The Ambrosia Forest is an agroforestry farm that will produce fruits, berries and organic vines. Its activity is based on four principles: making the most out of existing biodiversity, creating resilient crops, regulating problems such as water overflow and raising awareness among the general public.
Noah’s Ark of the Ocean Twilight Zone
Location: Mediterranean area
By: 1 OCEAN Fondation
Year: Festival 2023
The Festival is funding this project up to €50,000 (excl. VAT).
The aim of the 1 OCEAN Foundation under the aegis of the CNRS Foundation is to explore and document the seabed, by supporting scientific research missions, in order to better understand and protect the Ocean, an exceptional common good.
The project is led by the photographer and explorer Alexis Rosenfeld. Making the underwater world his universe he spent 10 000 hours below the surface in search of new stories to tell.
Exploration is at the heart of all scientific discovery, allowing access to knowledge. The scientific explorations are showcased in photographic productions, documentary films, interviews, exhibitions, as well as a detailed communication programmes.
On the eve of UN Biodiversity Conference COP 15, UNESCO and the 1 OCEAN Foundation are launching a scientific exploration programme on Mediterranean red gorgonians. In response to last summer’s unprecedented mass mortality episode, scientists are seeking to understand how gorgonians and their ecosystems can survive in the ocean twilight zone.
For these species, the ocean could act as a thermal shield and its depths could constitute a salutary refuge.
Let’s rewild the Vercors
Location: Vercors
By: ASPAS
Year: Festival 2023
The Festival is funding this project up to €50,000 (excl. VAT).
While biodiversity is facing an unprecedented crisis and the sixth mass extinction is underway, it has become urgent to preserve areas where nature can freely evolve and where flora and fauna find shelter from human destruction and exploitation.
In response to this challenge, ASPAS works to improve the protection of certain areas in France, and thus increase the number of sites in free evolution through the creation of Réserves de Vie Sauvage® and Havres de Vie Sauvage®.
This is to form a network of habitats for the regeneration of living beings, while benefiting their surrounding environment. Most scientists have hailed this approach as a genuine long-term response to the current planetary crises.
The overall objective of this project is to create a vast, freely evolving area in the Vercors Massif by using innovative methods and mechanisms. It will serve as a gateway to the Southern Alps, relying on the existing Wildlife Reserves® (Grand Barry® and Vercors Vie Sauvage).
PRIME: RESTORING THE MEDITERRANEAN COASTLINE
Location: Cannes
By: Cannes Endowment Fund (in partnership with NaturDive and Blue Leaf Conservation)
Year: Festival 2022
The Festival is funding this project up to €50,000 (excl. VAT).
As the climate emergency and successive crises rumble on, the Mediterranean coastline and Cannes’ surrounding countryside are under threat. The PRIME project is tackling these issues by raising public awareness of the situation while protecting and restoring the Mediterranean’s Posidonia oceanica meadows. Native to the Mediterranean, Posidonia oceanica has a great many benefits and stores much more carbon than even the Amazon rainforest. The Festival will be supporting PRIME specifically in restoring depleted Posidonia oceanica in the Bay of Cannes.
The project ultimately aims to achieve low-carbon label status, allowing it to offer all interested parties the opportunity to offset unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions. This would make it one of the Mediterranean’s very first “blue carbon” projects, a scheme that runs alongside the forest-focussed “green carbon” projects.
The Festival’s donation will be exclusively channelled into the team’s seagrass restoration efforts.
Restoring seagrass meadows in specific areas goes some way to mitigating their decline and is an effective solution that could lead to reviving lost carbon stores and sinks and re-establishing other vital benefits that these seagrasses bring to the ecosystem. Each Posidonia oceanica restoration campaign requires a site-specific experimental study. As well as returning the ecosystem to its original state, restoration also strengthens the seagrasses and slows down their erosion.
COMBATTING ENERGY POVERTY IN NEIGHBOURHOODS IN MARSEILLE
Location: Marseille
By: GERES
Year: Festival 2022
The Festival is funding this project up to €50,000 (excl. VAT).
In France, 3.5 million households live in energy poverty, suffering from high energy bills combined with low incomes. This initiative runs in Marseille’s La Cabucelle – Saint Louis district, an area characterised by subpar housing and a high percentage of low-income households.
The scheme aims to empower isolated families and individuals living in energy poverty by helping them to improve living conditions in their homes. Home visits are scheduled with a view to providing personalised support, in some cases leading on to emergency works (such as double-glazing and sealing cracks and gaps) conducted by Impulse Toit, a local back-to-work charity. Group workshops are in place to make households aware of their rights and existing funding, and teach them to better understand energy consumption and prevent health and safety risks.
The Festival’s donation will be used to bolster the anti-energy poverty scheme and increase the total number of beneficiaries targeted for 2022/2023.
According to a GERES estimate, it costs €1,000 to €1,500 to raise a household out of energy poverty. The association’s support ranges from providing energy advice visits to conducting emergency works and fitting equipment. These works and the materials used cost around €800. Past experiences have shown that around 10 to 20% of targeted households require this type of work.
GERES provides support for around 35 to 50 households, depending on the identified needs.
La Cabucelle - Saint-Louis © GERES
LOCAL CONTRIBUTION
Orchard plantation project
Location: South of France
By: Carbon&Co
Year: Festival 2023
The Festival is funding this project up to €231 770 (excl. VAT).
5 farmers from the South of France are planting Low Carbon Label* orchards helping to relocate the apple, pear and almond French branches and storing 3 311 tons of carbon with positive impacts on biodiversity, soil health and water and air quality.
SUSTAINABLE FOREST MANAGEMENT PROJECT
Location: Grasse (France)
By: Ma Forêt
Year: Festival 2021
The Festival is providing full funding for this project up to €149,586.58 (excl. VAT).
This native Mediterranean forest in the heights of Grasse is currently seeing dieback among its Scots pine trees – some of which are over a century old – while its downy oak trees are drying out, all across a 75-hectare area. The project’s aim is three-fold: helping the forest to regenerate, preparing it for climate change, and protecting ancient trees teeming with life.
POST-FOREST FIRE REFORESTING PROJECT, CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA PROPRIÉTÉ FORESTIÈRE
Location: Grasse (France)
By: Centre National de la Propriété Forestière
Year: Festival 2021
The Festival is providing full funding for this project up to €32,250.00 (excl. VAT).
This project was launched following the 2017 forest fire that swept through Saint-Cézaire sur-Siagne in Grasse’s back country, ravaging 53 hectares of forestland in the process. The reforestation plans involve a mix of different species and aim to rebuild the landscape at a popular sight-seeing spot.
NATIONAL CONTRIBUTION
Soufflet Agriculture: conservation agriculture and anaerobic digestion
Location: France, Grand Est region
By: Carbone&Co.
Year: Festival 2024
The Festival finances this project at a level of €155,200 (excl. VAT).
Located in the Grand Est region, between the Aube and Haute-Marne departments, the Soufflet Agriculture project brings a number of farmers together based on conservation agriculture, with a focus on reducing fuel consumption, increasing the vegetation cover of soil and diversifying yields. Additionally, the creation of an anaerobic digestion unit will make it possible to reclaim organic materials and assist in the production of biogas. The project takes a holistic approach that goes beyond carbon and seeks to ensure that tomorrow’s agricultural systems are the source of multiple environmental benefits.
3 afforestation projects
Location: Towns of Domvast and Canchy (Somme), Ger (Manche) and Serain (Aisne).
By: Centre National de la Propriété Forestière
Year: Festival 2024
The Festival finances this project at a level of €150,000 (excl. VAT).
The three supported projects are located in the Aisne, Manche and Somme departments and will allow for the afforestation of a number of parcels, totalling 22 hectares: pastures, former farmland and fallow land. This afforestation will be carried out with a wide variety of species (around ten for each project), the vast majority of which are local, and will integrate the preservation of existing hedges and hedgerow trees. The parcels adjoin woods and will make it possible to create contiguous wooded areas. These forested areas will allow for the sequestration of around 5,200 tonnes of CO2 over a period of 30 years, all while favouring biodiversity. As of autumn 2024, they will boast the Low Carbon label from the Ministry of Ecological Transition.
SUPPORTING AGRO-ECOLOGICAL TRANSITION IN LIVESTOCK FARMING AND REPLENISHING THE LOIRE AREA’S BOCAGE
Location: France
By: Solenat
Year: Festival 2022
The Festival is funding this project up to €90,000 (excl. VAT).
Deep in the heart of the Loire region, the Carbocage and livestock farming project helps protect the wooded countryside and support livestock farms in shifting towards a low-carbon approach. Participating farmers in the Loire region will be rolling out hedgerow-boosting plans: planting and improving management to capture and store carbon and foster biodiversity. The farmers will be embarking on an ecological transition to improve their carbon footprint by making changes to their livestock and growing. As an example, they will be reducing their reliance on imports by growing protein-rich feed.
This project tackles carbon and biodiversity and enjoys ‘French Low-Carbon Label’ certification.
© Q. Veron CRA PdL / Solenat
GROWING FORESTLAND ON BROWNFIELD SITES AND ABANDONED FARMLAND IN THE NIEVRE REGION
Location: France
By: Centre National de la Propriété Forestière
Year: Festival 2022
The Festival is providing full funding for this project up to €62,500 (excl. VAT).
This project in Sauvigny-les-Bois (Nièvre) involves afforestation on former farmland spaces that are currently brownfield sites. The afforestation plans involve a diverse mix of tree species. The project will have positive knock-on effects on protecting the water here (the site is on the banks of a stream) and welcoming in members of the public. This initiative will help capture several thousands of tCO2, and is a carbon-offsetting scheme that will be granted the French Ministry for Ecological Transition’s Low-Carbon label.
FARMLAND AFFORESTATION PROJECT
Location: Cantal (France)
By: Centre National de la Propriété Forestière
Year: Festival 2021
The Festival is providing full funding for this project up to €70,000 (excl. VAT).
The supported project is located in the Cantal, in the municipality of Saint-Saury, and consists in the afforestation of agricultural land with a great diversity of species (mix of around ten deciduous and resinous species) which should make it possible to sequester approximately 4,000 TCO2 over 30 years. This project benefits from the Low Carbon label from the Ministry of Ecological Transition, which certifies the carbon impact of the project, thanks to the expertise of the CNPF.
BOCAGE CARBON-OFFSETTING & ECO-METHANE PROJECT
Location: France
By: PUR Projet and Bleu Blanc Cœur
Year: Festival 2021
The Festival is providing full funding for this project up to €114,540.00 (excl. VAT).
The Carbocage – Eco-methane project’s goal is to support the implementation of low carbon models for livestock raising and agricultural practices that are beneficial for the environment in France. These projects support livestock farmers who adopt practices that have a positive impact on ecosystems by: – changing the diet of their herds of cattle; – planting hedges in their plots of land. These practices allow for the improvement of animal well-being, they protect biodiversity, enrich soils and balance the water cycle. They also make it possible to avoid carbon emissions by altering the diet of herds and to sequester carbon thanks to hedges planted in agricultural plots.
The projects developed follow two development methodologies that are currently being validated by the Ministry of Ecological Transition and will thus receive the Low Carbon Label, which ensures the rigorous measuring and monitoring of the carbon impact of the project.
INTERNATIONAL CONTRIBUTION
DelAgua Clean Cooking Grouped Project
Location: Rwanda
By: SCB
Year: Festival 2024
The Festival finances this project at a level of €276,000 (excl. VAT).
Developed in Rwanda, this project seeks to improve traditional cooking methods, which are highly energy consuming and dangerous for one’s health, by providing significant progress in terms of both health and the environment.
By distributing 25,000 cookstoves to households, the project will allow each family to save around 1,600 dollars in total. The project avoids greenhouse emissions by significantly reducing the need for biomass in cooking, thereby limiting deforestation in local wooded areas and preserving the biodiversity and well-being of numerous animal species, notably Colobus monkeys, grey crowned cranes and chimpanzees. It meets 7 of the United Nation’s sustainable development objectives.
Sindh, for the restoration and conservation of mangrove forests
Location: Pakistan
By: Removall
Year: Festival 2024
The Festival finances this project at a level of €262,048 (excl. VAT).
The Sindh project focuses on the restoration and conservation of mangrove forests in the Indus delta region in Pakistan. It extends over 350,000 hectares (Thatta and Sujawal districts). Mangrove forests are particularly effective at sequestering carbon due to their capacity to accumulate large quantities of carbon in their roots and surrounding soil, thereby contributing to the fight against climate change. By restoring mangrove forest ecosystems, which act as natural barriers against coastal erosion and storms, the project contributes to the region’s overall climate resilience and also protects the biodiversity of the mangrove forests that serve as a habitat for a number of plant and animal species.
Agua do Moçambique
Location: Mozambique
By: Removall
Year: Festival 2023
The Festival is funding this project up to €293 410 (excl. VAT).
By providing safe water with the rehabilitation of boreholes and the repair of broken pumps, the Agua do Moçambique project ensures that households consume less firewood during the process of water purification. As a result, communities have access to safe drinking water and carbon dioxide emissions are reduced from the combustion process.
Energy and development: improved cookstoves in Bamako
Location: Mali
By: GERES
Year: Festival 2023
The Festival is funding this project up to €255 000 (excl. VAT).
In Mali, 80% of the population uses wood as energy, especially for cooking, with inefficient traditional equipment. Improved cookstoves reduce wood consumption, deforestation and CO2 emissions.
THE KARIBA PROJECT: PROTECTING FORESTLAND AND FAUNA & FLORA CONSERVATION
Location: Zimbabwe
Year: Festival 2022
The Festival is funding this project up to €380,695 (excl. VAT).
On the shores of Lake Kariba on the Zimbabwe-Zambia border, this project protects close to 785,000 hectares of forestland and a great many wild species. Spanning four national parks and eight safari reserves, this green corridor is a safe haven for many vulnerable and endangered species, particularly African elephants, lions, hippopotamuses and southern ground hornbills.
The project also helps develop community gardens, facilitates access to healthcare and offers bee-keeping training to empower local communities in achieving self-sufficiency.
WOOD-FIRED OVENS DISTRIBUTION PROJECT
Location: Myanmar
By: Climate Seed
Year: Festival 2022
The Festival is funding this project up to €199,920 (excl. VAT).
Myanmar has the third-highest rate of deforestation in the world. What’s more, rural families in Myanmar invest up to 40% of their income – or the equivalent in time – into buying and gathering wood to heat their homes. This project in Myanmar involves distributing over 30,000 wood-fired ovens, allowing households to decrease the amount of wood they use and lower household spending on the resource, while relieving pressure on the country’s forests. This sparks a drop in air pollution, improving local communities’ general health, too.
The Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve
Location: Indonesia
Year: Festival 2021
The Festival is funding this project up to €64,312.50 (excl. VAT).
The Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve protects 91,215 hectares of peat swamp forests in Indonesia, previously threatened by conversion into oil palm plantations. Located in the Central Kalimantan province, the reserve preserves biodiversity and habitats of endangered species like the Bornean orangutan, while preventing the deforestation of over 47,000 hectares. In addition to carbon sequestration, the project promotes local sustainable development by providing employment for 73 individuals, including 18 women, and supporting environmental education and economic empowerment initiatives, particularly for women, through poultry farming and recyclable crafts projects.
RIBEIRIHNOS REDD PROJECT
Location: Brazil
By: Eco Act
Year: Festival 2021
The Festival is funding this project up to €84,500 (excl. VAT).
Because of their “traditional peoples” status, local communities in the Pará region have no land ownership deeds. This project supplies them with ownership certificates for land already owned by these communities in order to protect the forest from illegal logging and poaching.
