Eucalyptus producers in the Tanneron massif in the Var are losing patience.
Yet another eucalyptus farm was recently the victim of an attempted theft.
This time the thieves - three men of Albanian origin - could be arrested by the gendarmerie, but this is not always the case.
Faced with this phenomenon, which has grown significantly in recent years, operators are sounding the alarm bells.
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“
Our plots are devastated because they destroy everything.
It takes a considerable amount of time to restore.
And for some species, it will take three years to harvest again,
”explains Roland Lèze, president of the local farmers' union in Tanneron, to France Bleu.
According to him, this phenomenon is growing for two reasons: an inadequate criminal response which does not dissuade thieves enough, and the lack of resources allocated to the gendarmes to dismantle networks which are often piloted from Italy.
“
We have gendarmes who want to help us, they are aware of the problem but only, we do not give them the means to act
.
Our problem is located on the other side of the border, in Italy, where people exploit human misery to commit their theft,
”he regrets.
Same story for Max Covilli, producer in Tanneron, in the Provençal hinterland, who confides to the
Parisian
that thieves systematically leave with a booty of several hundred kg of leaves.
“
Each time, between 500 and 600 kg are taken away!
It's huge and everything is sold in Sanremo, Italy, where this plant is very popular,
”he explains.
No farm is spared
This traffic affects all the farms in the department, which prompted the 70 producers of the Var to alert the public authorities, because the plantations take several years to recover from these wild cuts.
“
Sometimes, they cut down the tree outright to recover the thickest branches, located high up, and inaccessible to them,
” explains the local farmers' union in Tanneron.
For Max Covili, thefts are so frequent that they end up "
endangering the very production of eucalyptus in the South
".
The authorities are well aware of the problem but seem overwhelmed by its magnitude.
“
These are highly organized sectors in Italy made up of cutters of foreign origin, who adapt.
In past years, little hands tended to intervene at night.
But now, they no longer hesitate to operate in broad daylight, in isolated plots, and therefore not easily visible.
They are capable of bringing back up to two tonnes of goods in their vehicle ”
explains for France Bleu the squadron leader Stéphane Calimé, commander of the Draguignan gendarmerie company.
Read also: He cuts down a eucalyptus and a 3-month scoop
To fight against this scourge, the State signed a tripartite agreement in 2019 with the municipality and producers in order to share information on the subject and thus increase the efficiency of operations carried out by the police.
“
The purpose of this convention is to get to know each other better, to create a network of people concerned by this issue.
We can alert producers to certain developments.
They give us information from the field.
To have a preventive and repressive action when elements or weak signals start to appear ”
summarizes the squadron leader Calimé at the microphone of France Bleu.
