Law of the Sea
Meeting with Sebastian Greaux, ocean floor specialist and director of ATE the environmental agency. By LOÏC PINTO Could you briefly introduce yourself and the Territorial Environment Agency? SÉBASTIEN GRÉAUX: My name is Sébastien Gréaux, I have been the director of ATE since 2018 and I specialize in the conservation of the seabed. The ATE tries, on its own scale, to maintain the biodiversity of St Barth, mainly weakened by human activities and threatened from all sides today. L’OFFICIEL:
Despite its small size, St Barth has a great diversity of fauna and flora, increasingly impacted by pollution directly affecting the archipelago, the seabed and the land surrounding them. The risks weighing on the environment are major, can you tell us a few words about them and tell us how you can try to anticipate and counter them? SG: St Barth being a small territory, the threats are mainly due to the human presence: destruction of habitats linked to the construction of buildings (hotels, houses, restaurants etc), invasive presence of domestic animals which proliferate or human overpopulation of the island which induces a tenfold vehicle fleet. L’O:
Our mission is divided into several fields of action. We take care of the nature reserve, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. We must ensure scientific monitoring of species and environments with high stakes. We also manage the moorings of the boats, the maritime beaconing, which involves a significant administrative part and maintenance of the material. We issue fishing licenses, with 1000 holders today and also enforce environmental policy. The ATE monitors the numbers of invasive alien species, whether animal (striped iguanas, corn snakes, goats) or plants. In this regard, the ATE centralizes the complaints of residents and works with other associations in 122
order to act in the direction of a balance of ecosystems. In 3 years, 2000 goats have been captured, which may seem like a lot, but there are still a lot of them in the hills, unfortunately. When you say they are captured, how exactly is this done? We catch them and give them to people who have a park to accommodate them. But we are not going to lie, sooner or later they will end up on a plate. We want to put everything in place so that certain plants have time to reproduce. In fact, the ATE has a nursery with native species that it then tries to replant in the wild, in places where stray goats are rare. L’O: SG:
L’O: Given the gravity of the situation, which is particularly worrying with regard to the seabed and the coral, what are your strategies to promote your actions and your values to the inhabitants of the island and to tourists? SG: Through the community, the ATE allocates aid for the installation of solar panels and water heaters to ensure that the island turns more and more to green. About this subject and all the others, we communicate to the general public through the Internet: our site of course, but also through our social networks, Facebook and Instagram. But as is often the case here, most of the communication takes place through word of mouth and day-to-day education via architects, contractors, volunteers and agents. We are fortunate to have in our ranks an environmental education officer who intervenes in schools or occasionally for the training of hotel staff. L’O: There seems to be a real awareness of environmental issues, especially among young people. How do you see mentalities evolving in relation to these subjects? DA: It’s true that mentalities have changed a lot. For example
