As a lawyer by training, I am deeply convinced of one thing: environmental law is one of the most powerful tools we have to win battles for life in the long term. This is what makes it one of the aspects of my work with the LPO that is particularly close to my heart.
For many years, the LPO has been carrying out significant legal work. It takes action to ensure compliance with environmental law, particularly in response to certain hunting practices that violate species protection regulations, but it also contributes, through its legal challenges, to shaping case law.
I personally experienced one of the most significant episodes in this history during the Erika trial, in which I participated as an attorney representing the civil parties. The LPO had also joined the case as a civil party to seek recognition of the considerable damage caused to birds and, beyond that, to nature itself. This trial marked a major milestone in the history of French environmental law, with the recognition of ecological damage for the first time. The long years of legal proceedings that followed the oil spill left a deep impression on me and continue to influence the way I approach environmental battles.
This experience also reinforced a conviction that has never left me: science and the law are two essential pillars of our collective action.
Science, on one hand, allows us to establish the facts, assess the condition of populations and ecosystems, document threats, and evaluate solutions. The law, on the other hand, transforms this knowledge into rules, obligations, and when necessary decisions that are binding on everyone.
Bringing these elements together allows us to move as far as possible away from purely ideological confrontations. Whether the issue is hunting, species protection, damage to natural habitats, or large-scale development projects, our responsibility is to start with the facts, scientific knowledge, and applicable law. Then we must fight to ensure they are upheld. And, when they do not sufficiently protect living things, we must work to change them.
It is this integration of science, law, and action that, in my view, constitutes one of the LPO’s greatest strengths. And it is likely one of the reasons why, after all these years, I remain so committed to this cause.
