Biodiversity: a new boss for the environmental policeman

For his first day at the head of the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB), Olivier Thibault did not hesitate: he went to Brest, where the premises of the office were burned down a few weeks ago. , during a demonstration of fishermen. “The agents on site suffered a real trauma, I found it important to provide them with my support, perspectives, and to carry our environmental protection policies”, he explains, in an interview with “Echos “.

The new director general of the OFB does not take office at the most serene moment for the institution. In particular, because one of its main missions is to ensure the police of the environment, at a time when the territory is crossed by strong tensions, on the Peach , pesticides or water uses. “These tensions are indicative of the state of the country,” comments the man who until then was director of water and biodiversity at the Ministry of Ecological Transition.

An organization subject to criticism

Its task will not be easy, as the OFB is criticized, sometimes by farmers who often consider it too zealous, sometimes by NGOs, who reproach it for its laxity. With representatives from several ministries on its board, as well as NGOs, farmers and even hunters, the organization was recently sued by France Nature Environnement and Générations Futures, for having asked its agents to raise the foot on the controls of the arborists despite the ban on neonicotinoids.

Olivier Thibault, the new Director General of the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB).OFB

“It is strategic for biodiversity to protect pollinators, without which there is no life,” insists Olivier Thibault. “The purpose of this circular was to give arboriculturists time to adapt to a paradigm shift (since they will have to learn to do without pesticides) by simply giving them warnings the first year”, justifies he.

“The real subject is to raise awareness of the interest in applying public policies, to explain the why of the regulations”, insists this polytechnician, who was chosen from among twenty declared candidates and dubbed by a vote of parliamentarians on May 24, to succeed Pierre Dubreuil (appointed head of the national domain of Chambord last January).

Enforcing environmental law, with its 1,700 inspectors, is only one of the missions of the OFB: the office is also responsible for making known and understanding the challenges of biodiversity, of “proving example” by managing a certain number of natural sites itself or supporting public policies thanks to its expertise.

Lack of means

Olivier Thibault knows the files well, he who was adviser to Jean-Louis Borloo at the Ministry of Sustainable Development between 2007 and 2010, then director of the Artois Picardie Water Agency from 2010 to 2017, and director of the Office national hunting and wildlife (ONCFS) of 2017 and 2019.

He will now have to deploy all his energy to help the OFB really find its place. Born in 2020 from the merger of the French Biodiversity Agency and the ONCFS, the organization is, with less than 500 million euros in annual budget and nearly 3,000 employees, regularly pointed out for its lack of resources.

“The question is what society is willing to put into the environment. I am optimistic, biodiversity is starting to be taken into account in public policies. And the creation of the General Secretariat for Ecological Planning (SGPE) shows the government’s intention that all sectors take it up, ”wants Olivier Thibault to believe.

It should be quickly fixed on the real political will in this field: one of its major immediate projects will be to supervise the last contributions of the OFB to the National biodiversity strategy a first draft of which must be presented by Elisabeth Borne this month, before its adoption scheduled for the fall.