Marathon of biodiversity
About this good practice
The challenge set by the Marathon of Biodiversity is to reach 42 km of restored hedges and 42 ponds in less than 3 years.
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.