By Emma Pavans de Ceccatty, PAN UK
As early as the 1990s, Paris was already putting significant measures in place to reduce their use of pesticides (herbicides, insecticides, fungicides etc.) on streets, pavements, parks, playgrounds and other urban spaces. By 2017, when a national ban on all amenity use of pesticides (the ‘Labbé law’) was put in place, Paris was mostly pesticide-free and didn’t have a long way to go. There was a real desire to make Paris a green city which could better support its struggling wildlife and offer its residents a healthier place to live.
Having grown up in Paris, I was very happy to receive an invitation from the Ville de Paris officials this year to visit the French capital to see first-hand how the city has been managing without pesticides.
Both Parisians and tourists have high expectations for the city’s appearance and the Ville de Paris team are all too aware that an overgrown city is not an option. Walking around the 11th district, I was surprised to see that the only ‘weeds’ were a few plants growing along walls or under barriers and other street furniture. It felt very maintained. I think I expected things to be wildly different, but things mostly looked the same as before Paris went pesticide-free.
This is largely because Paris has designed and embraced a balanced approach in which wild plants are accepted in certain areas, while in other locations street cleaning processes are increased. Streets are maintained to a high standard: cleaners brush streets regularly to avoid any accumulation of matter (like leaves) that could turn into soil and encourage plant growth. Then, later in the season, if plants do manage to grow but are not causing any accessibility issues or possible damage to infrastructure then they are left. Those plants that do pose a potential problem are cleared through hand weeding, hoeing, or the use of electric brush cutters.
Parisian residents are encouraged to adopt their local tree pits.
Signs help to educate the public on why areas have been left to grow for biodiversity.
This approach has been accompanied by efforts to shift mindsets and raise awareness of “working with natural cycles” amongst both those employed to maintain Paris and the city’s residents. Training is offered to maintenance officers to recognise and celebrate biodiversity on the streets. Borough municipalities distribute posters to residents and encourage the mapping of urban plant species through the ‘Sauvage Ma Rue’ project. They also put up signs about the wildlife one might see, from yellow wagtails near waterways to thistle along a cemetery wall.
More recently, Paris is creating new green spaces – residents and businesses can adopt tree pits, and even apply to de-pave areas to create mini parks or allotments. The city is also in the process of greening schools with the installation of planters that children can manage, as well as the pedestrianisation and greening of school roads.
Paris is de-paving areas all over the city.
Plant growth is encouraged in unused spaces.
In the UK, where going pesticide-free can still be thought of as a radical undertaking, I realised that in Paris I felt almost underwhelmed by what I’d seen. The city was running normally and, as the officers told me again and again, it simply took time, trial and error, and political will to end their pesticide use. This was not another revolution for Paris, and no heads rolled, apart from, perhaps, a few unwanted buddleias…
Find out more about pesticide-free cemeteries in Paris here.
