THE MAINTENANCE OF AN AGRICULTURAL TERRITORY IN THE URBAN DISTRICT OF EVRY (ILE-DE-FRANCE): FIRST STEPS TO SUSTAIN LOCAL INITIATIVES

In the Ile-de-France region (surroundings of Paris) the news cities created in the 1970’s were built in the heart of arable cropping systems areas. The agriculture that surrounds these growing cities is threatened by urbanisation but the needs of opened spaces felt by the new city-dwellers and the recent evolution of the urban planning laws in France engender at the same time a new interest for the agricultural territory. It is the case in the urban district of Evry (Essonne): a new-born association tries to make lobby to maintain agricultural spaces in the called “Plateau du Centre Essonne”. At their request, we led a multidisciplinary approach aiming at knowing better the current state of agriculture in this territory, its recognized functions by various actors, its place in documents and projects of urban and regional planning. The first results show a diversified and still dynamic agriculture with several forms of adaptation to the urban proximity and several strategies for sustainability in the medium term. Often profitable in an economic point of view, it is frequently recognized by non-farmers actors as for its function of “green lung” and “landscape”. Several typical farms present a patrimonial interest which could be upgraded by helping the farmers to maintain some of their agricultural buildings and by creating a network of discovery footpaths. The importance of this agriculture in urban planning documents is more complex: it is globally protected as an element of the green belt of Paris in the regional frames; it is less the case in their local translation, some municipalities being strongly tempted by the taxes they could obtain by authorizing the creation of new activities areas (enterprises, supermarkets etc.) in spite of the pro-agriculture speechs of some of the mayors. The new urban planning laws are translated locally by several intercommunalities, each one getting its own territory project: four different projects concern the Plateau, three of them cutting it around the concerned municipalities, and one containing it totally. Will the farmers and their local supporters find the ways to make their voices listened and their propositions for the preservation of agricultural activities considered ?