Zone to Defend or ZAD ( French: zone à défendre) is a French

neologism A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...

used to refer to a militant squatting, occupation that is intended to physically blockade a development project. By occupying the land, activists aim to prevent the project from going ahead. The acronym "ZAD" is a détournement of "deferred development area" (from French: zone d'aménagement différé). The ZADs are organized particularly in rural areas with an ecological or agricultural dimension, although the name has also been used by occupations in urban areas, for example in

Décines-Charpieu Décines-Charpieu (; frp, Dessines) is a commune in the Metropolis of Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in eastern France. The name of the city is often shortened and simply called Décines. Geography Décines is located near Grand Large res ...

and Rouen. The most notable example is the ZAD de Notre-Dame-des-Landes which helped a broader campaign to defeat the Aéroport du Grand Ouest, a proposed airport in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, north of Nantes. The ZAD du Testet existed from 2011 until 2015 and prevented a dam from being constructed. Evicted ZADs have amongst other things contested the construction of an electricity substation, a motorway and a facility for the storage of nuclear waste. There have been ZADs in the departments of

Aveyron Aveyron (; oc, Avairon; ) is a department in the region of Occitania, Southern France. It was named after the river Aveyron. Its inhabitants are known as ''Aveyronnais'' (masculine) or ''Aveyronnaises'' (feminine) in French. The inhabitants ...

Bas-Rhin Bas-Rhin (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsàss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its low ...

Doubs Doubs (, ; ; frp, Dubs) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in Eastern France. Named after the river Doubs, it had a population of 543,974 in 2019.Isère, Loire-Atlantique,

Meuse The Meuse ( , , , ; wa, Moûze ) or Maas ( , ; li, Maos or ) is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a t ...

Seine-Maritime Seine-Maritime () is a department of France in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the northern coast of France, at the mouth of the Seine, and includes the cities of Rouen and Le Havre. Until 1955 it was named Seine-Inféri ...

, Tarn and

Yvelines Yvelines () is a department in the western part of the Île-de-France region in Northern France. In 2019, it had a population of 1,448,207.Hambach Forest in Germany and the No TAV movement in Italy have both been compared to ZADs. The ZAD de la Colline was the first Swiss Zone to Defend.

History

The acronym "ZAD" meaning "zone to defend" ( French: "zone à défendre") is a détournement of "deferred development area" ( French: "zone d'aménagement différé"). In 2015, the French term ''"zadiste"'' (English: Zadist) entered the 2016 edition of ''Le Petit Robert'' dictionary as "a militant occupying a ZAD to oppose a proposed development that would damage the environment." The ZADs are organized particularly in areas with an ecological or agricultural dimension. The name has also been used by occupations in urban areas, for example in Rouen and in

. Appearing in France in the early 2010s, the term was first popularized during the opposition to the airport construction project in Notre-Dame-des-Landes. In France, the most famous antecedents of the ZAD movement are the Larzac struggle (1971–1981), the protests against the proposed nuclear power plant at Creys-Malville, in Isère (1977), and at

Plogoff Plogoff (; br, Plougoñ) is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France. It contains three small ports suitable for small vessels: Pors-Loubous, Feunten-Aod and Bestrée. Local industries include tourism, traditi ...

in the 1970s and 1980s. One of the movement's first slogans was "ZAD everywhere" ( French: "Zad Partout") and though there are no official figures, in early 2016 ''La Gazette des Communes'' estimated there to have been at least a dozen ZADs across France since 2009. In other countries there are projects similar to the ZAD concept, such as the occupation of the Hambach Forest in Germany, the No TAV movement in the Susa Valley in Italy and the

Grow Heathrow Grow Heathrow was a land squat and community garden in Sipson, west London. It was occupied in 2010 by local people concerned about the possibility of the expansion of Heathrow Airport. It was part of the Transition Network. Half of the site w ...

squat protesting against the

expansion of Heathrow Airport The expansion of Heathrow Airport is a series of proposals to add to the runways at London's busiest airport beyond its two long runways which are intensively used to serve four terminals and a large cargo operation. The plans are those present ...

in London.

Initiatives

The ZADs have multiplied in France after the state's failed eviction of the protest occupation at Notre-Dame-des-Landes in the autumn of 2012. One of the first to be set up afterwards was the ZAD de la ferme des Bouillons near Rouen. In addition to Notre-Dame-des-Landes ZAD, the best-known cases are the opposition to: the Sivens dam project in Tarn where the activist Rémi Fraisse was killed by the French police; the proposed Center Parcs project in the forest of Chambaran in Isère; a nuclear waste storage project called Cigéo ( French: Centre industriel de stockage géologique) in Bure.
"Notre-Dame-des-Landes inspired other protests", The Cross, 2 August 2013 Activists began a solidarity project called ZAD Patate in 2013, which opposed the destruction of

market gardens A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under to som ...

on the plain of

Montesson Montesson () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris. Transport in Montesson is served by buses with T-tickets as well as by several Paris-subur ...

. In the

Yvelines Yvelines () is a department in the western part of the Île-de-France region in Northern France. In 2019, it had a population of 1,448,207. In 2014, plans to expand the commercial zone were halted, but the

guerrilla gardening Guerrilla gardening is the act of gardening – raising food, plants, or flowers – on land that the gardeners do not have the legal rights to cultivate, such as abandoned sites, areas that are not being cared for, or private property. It enco ...

continued. The gardens have been sabotaged several times: an orchard of thirty fruit trees was cut down and a field of potatoes was destroyed. The ZAD de Sainte-Colombe-en-Bruilhois was set up near

Agen The commune of Agen (, ; ) is the prefecture of the Lot-et-Garonne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. It lies on the river Garonne southeast of Bordeaux. Geography The city of Agen lies in the southwestern department ...

to prevent the development of a business park in December 2014. The Zadists were invited on to land by a local farmer and slowly expanded onto neighbouring lots. They demanded that 220 hectares of agricultural land be preserved. Most of the ZAD was evicted in May 2016, but the land of the farmer still needed to be expropriated, since he refused to sell it. Not all ZADs involve permanent occupations. The ZAD du Triangle at

Gonesse Gonesse () is a commune in the Val-d'Oise department, in the north-eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. The commune lies immediately north of Le Bourget Airport, and it is six kilometres (four miles) south- ...

, to the north of Paris, was set up to counter plans by Auchan and Wanda Group to build a shopping centre called EuropaCity. A collective to protect the triangle of land at Gonesse was formed in 2011 and at times, for example in October 2019, tent occupations were used as part of the tactics to resist construction. As of 2020, the EuropaCity plans had been scrapped but activists were still wary of other developments. Local people in

Brueil-en-Vexin Brueil-en-Vexin (, literally ''Brueil in Vexin'') is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. See also *Communes of the Yvelines department An intentional community is a voluntary resident ...

camped on land for a weekend in 2019 to show opposition to plans to dig limestone quarries on agricultural land. A ZAD was discussed but not implemented. By September 2020, the plans were still under discussion and the activists restated their intention to create a ZAD if circumstances required it. Activists attempted to set up a ZAD in March 2016 to resist the construction of a quarry for a new motorway in the Bager forest, which is located at

Oloron-Sainte-Marie Oloron-Sainte-Marie (; oc, Auloron e Senta Maria; eu, Oloroe-Donamaria) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine (before 2015: Aquitaine), southwestern France. History The town was founded by the ...

, in the

Pyrénées-Atlantiques Pyrénées-Atlantiques (; Gascon Occitan: ''Pirenèus Atlantics''; eu, Pirinio Atlantiarrak or ) is a department in the southwest corner of France and of the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Named after the Pyrenees mountain range and the Atlant ...

department near to the border with Spain. The mayor issued a byelaw forbidding camping and the police prevented them from founding a camp. By 2017, the ZAD had been initiated and it was still in existence in 2019. After a demonstration of 2,500 people in October 2019 against a proposed marina, the ZAD de la Dune at Bretignolles-sur-Mer was founded. It was evicted in April 2020 when police took twenty Zadists away from the site to make identity checks and the mayor together with 70 local people went onto the site and burnt down all the structures. The mayor's actions were condemned by other politicians as reckless, particularly since restrictions were in place due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. A ZAD in Ardèche was evicted in June and the local

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect's ...

said she would not tolerate any such project. In December 2019, residents of

Entraigues-sur-la-Sorgue Entraigues-sur-la-Sorgue (; oc, Entraigas de Sòrga) is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Southeastern France. Population In 2017, it had a population of 8,472. See also *Communes of the Vaucl ...

Vaucluse Vaucluse (; oc, Vauclusa, label= Provençal or ) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019. A ZAD was occupied in

Besançon Besançon (, , , ; archaic german: Bisanz; la, Vesontio) is the prefecture of the department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzer ...

in July 2020. The ZAD du Carnet was occupied in late August in order to stop the preparatory works for the expansion of the port of Saint-Nazaire in the Loire-Atlantique department. The site is between Frossay and Saint-Viaud. Activists voiced their concerns about destruction of 110 hectares of wetlands beside the

Loire The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône ...

river.

Notable projects

L’Amassada

The ZAD de l'Amassada at Saint-Victor-et-Melvieu, in the

department, was set up in December 2014 to oppose the construction of an

electricity substation A substation is a part of an electrical Electricity generation, generation, electric power transmission, transmission, and electric power distribution, distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perf ...

required by RTE (

Réseau de Transport d'Électricité Réseau de Transport d'Électricité ("Electricity Transmission Network"), usually known as RTE, is the electricity transmission system operator of France. It is responsible for the operation, maintenance and development of the French high-voltage ...

) to distribute the electricity generated by renewable sources, mainly wind turbines. The word "amassada" means "assembly" in the

Occitan language Occitan (; oc, occitan, link=no ), also known as ''lenga d'òc'' (; french: langue d'oc) by its native speakers, and sometimes also referred to as ''Provençal'', is a Romance language spoken in Southern France, Monaco, Italy's Occitan Vall ...

. There was a "windy week" in 2016, in which more cabins were built on the terrain of 7 hectares, with people coming to help out from other ZADs such as Bure, Roybon and the Susa Valley. As a way to slow down the progress of the project, 136 people became individual owners of plots over 3,300m² of land and thus would have to be bought out individually by RTE, a subsidiary of EDF ( Électricité de France). RTE obtained a declaration of public utility for the project in June 2018, which meant they could evict the site. Then in January 2019, the squatters were given an eviction order and warned that they would be fined 2000 euros for every day that they stayed. A police raid in February resulted in the arrest of five people on the site, with other people remaining to ensure it was not evicted. Before their trial in July, two of the five were forbidden from entering the ZAD and three from entering Aveyron. In October 2019, the ZAD was evicted. A protest march in November brought 300 people bearing flowers to the site. The police used tear gas to disperse the crowd and arrested several people.

Bure

The ZAD at Bure, in the Meuse department, protested against the expansion of a nuclear waste storage facility known as the Meuse/Haute Marne Underground Research Laboratory. Every year, the French nuclear energy industry produces around 13,000 cubic metres of radioactive waste (this equates to 2 kg for every French person or enough to fill 120 double-decker buses). Subject to state approval, all this waste will be stored underground at Bure from 2025 onwards. Since 2004, there has been an anti-nuclear ''Maison de la Résistance'' (House of Resistance) in the centre of Bure since 2004, which acts as headquarters for the protests. Land in the forest of Mandres-en-Barrois, which would be destroyed by the construction, was occupied in 2015. At a demonstration in 2017, the police used a water cannon and fired tear gas canisters and stun grenades. There were 30 wounded demonstrators, of which three were hospitalised. One of them, a 27-year-old man, was struck by an exploding GLI-4 grenade on his foot. It made a hole 13 centimetres long and 3 centimetres deep. The occupation at Mandres-en-Barrois was evicted in 2018. Thirty people had been living there and they retreated to the ''Maison de la Résistance.'' The

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

at the time, Gerard Collomb, said "We do not want there to be places of lawlessness in France." After the eviction, there were calls to resquat the site and a large police presence remained to counter the threat.

Colline

The ZAD de la Colline became the first Swiss ZAD after land at

Éclépens Éclépens is a municipality of the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, located in the district of Morges. History Éclépens is first mentioned in 814 as ''Sclepedingus''. Geography Éclépens has an area, , of . Of this area, or 52.8% is used for ...

in the

Canton of Vaud Vaud ( ; french: (Canton de) Vaud, ; german: (Kanton) Waadt, or ), more formally the canton of Vaud, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of ten districts and its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat of arms ...

was occupied in October 2020, when environmental activists wanted to prevent the expansion of a quarry run by

Holcim Holcim is a Swiss-based global building materials and aggregates flagship division of the Holcim Group. The original company was merged on 10 July 2015 with Lafarge to form LafargeHolcim as the new company and renamed to Holcim Group in 202 ...

. The occupation was supported by an open letter from

Jacques Dubochet Jacques Dubochet (born 8 June 1942) is a retired Swiss biophysicist. He is a former researcher at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, and an honorary professor of biophysics at the University of Lausanne in Switzer ...

, a

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

winning

biophysicist Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations. ...

. In November 2020, the squatters appealed a decision made by the municipality of

La Sarraz La Sarraz is a municipality of the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, located in the district of Morges. History La Sarraz is first mentioned in 1149 as ''Sarrata''. It is also known as the place of establishment of Le Congrès International d'Arc ...

to withdraw the permission of residence from a house used as their base. On 30 March 2021, 600 police officers evicted the ZAD, arresting 93 people. Two days later, two activists remained in a tree.

Ferme des Bouillons

Land located at

Mont-Saint-Aignan Mont-Saint-Aignan () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the region of Normandy, northwestern France. The inhabitants of the town of Mont-Saint-Aignan are called ''Mont-Saint-Aignanais'' in French. Due to the presence of higher educ ...

, in the

department north of Rouen, was occupied in December 2012 by activists concerned by its sale to Immochan (now part of Auchan), a property development company. It is the last farm on the plateau. The site was four hectares and fifty people turned it into an organic farm, fighting the plan of Immochan to build a shopping centre. The local council protected the land and in August 2015, Immochan sold the site to a local real estate company which proposed an organic farming project. The ZAD was then evicted by police exercising a 2013 court verdict. The Zadists were unhappy they had not been given an opportunity to buy the land and that their plan had been copied. They remained concerned that the land would be developed.

Moulin

The ZAD du Moulin was established in 2017 to resist the building of the A355 motorway also known as GCO ( French: Grand contournement ouest) near Strasbourg in the

department. Eight huts were built along the proposed 24 kilometres of the motorway, which was intended as a bypass to reduce congestion on the A35 which dissects Strasbourg. The costs were slated to be over 500 million euros. The ZAD was evicted by 500 police in September 2018.

Members of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

Karima Delli Karima Delli (born 4 March 1979 in Roubaix, Nord) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election, 2014 European elections and in the 2019 European elections for the Île-de-France constitue ...

and

José Bové Joseph "José" Bové (born 11 June 1953) is a French farmer, politician and syndicalist, member of the alter-globalization movement, and spokesman for Via Campesina. He was one of the twelve official candidates in the 2007 French presidential elec ...

had joined the protestors in solidarity with their struggle to stop the road. Delli was sprayed with tear gas in her face and mouth by the police and fell unconscious. Bové stated "This violence is unacceptable."

Notre-Dame-des-Landes

ZAD Notre-Dame-des-Landes (also known as ZAD NDDL) is the most well-known 'Zone to Defend' in France. Located in the Loire-Atlantique department near to Nantes, it is a very large mostly agricultural terrain of 1,650 hectares (4,080 acres) which became nationally famous and has resisted several concerted attempts by the French state to evict it. The squatters joined the long struggle against an airport, the Aéroport du Grand Ouest (AGO). It was announced in 2018 that the plans for the airport were cancelled and also that the squatters would have until spring to leave. In April 2018, a largescale eviction operation began as the French state tried to regain control of the autonomous zone. After 10 days (19 April), the police had fired 11,000 projectiles. The eviction was halted on 26 April and said it would be frozen until at least 14 May. The truce came about as representatives of the ZAD negotiated for legal recognition for 28 projects. Some projects agreed to file individual claims, whereas other refused to participate in the process.

Rheinland

The ZAD Rheinland was formed in 2020 to protect the village of Lützerath in the

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

state of Germany from demolition by RWE, which wants to expand the

Garzweiler surface mine The Tagebau Garzweiler is a surface mine (german: Tagebau) in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is operated by RWE and used for mining lignite. The mine currently has a size of 48 km² and got its name from the village of whi ...

. The camp was set up on the land of a farmer resisting eviction and from 1 October 2021 onwards, the land had been expropriated by RWE. It is the first explicitly named ZAD in Germany.

Roybon

The ZAD at

Roybon Roybon () is a commune in the Isère department in southeastern France. Geography The river Galaure has its source in the commune. Population See also *Communes of the Isère department The following is a list of the 512 communes in the ...

, Isère, between

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

and

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

, was created to oppose the proposed construction of a Center Parcs on the Chambarand plateau. Environmentalists had opposed the project since 2007, represented by the group 'For Chambaran without Center Parcs' ( French: Pour les Chambaran sans Center Parcs) or PCSCP. The plans entailed building almost 1000 cottages in the forest. Plans were halted in December 2016, when the Court of Appeal in Lyon stated that two of the three orders permitting construction were illegal. The court agreed with environmentalist concerns regarding wastewater processing from a site with a maximum capacity of 5,600 people and also how the water table would be affected, with 76 hectares of wetland under threat. The court did not agree that the potential loss of protected species outweighed the potential creation of 600 jobs. The owner of Center Parcs, Pierre & Vacances, announced that they would appeal the decision. By 2018, the ZAD had several buildings including the ''Marquise'' and ''Barricade Sud.'' The thirty inhabitants were planning to construct a strawbale house and were growing vegetables and farming animals. Pierre & Vacances announced in July 2020 that they were scrapping the plans to build and the ZAD responded that after six years it had no intention of disbanding. This angered the mayor of Roybon, who demanded that the camp was evicted.

Testet

The demonstrations to protect the biodiversity of the wetlands in the area threatened by the proposed Sivens Dam resulted in the ZAD du Testet, which existed from 2011 until 2015. It was evicted several times and resquatted. In 2014, botanist Rémi Fraisse was killed by a stun grenade fired by police and the following year the dam was cancelled.

Vaites

On 17 July 2020, activists from ANV-COP21 and

Extinction Rebellion Extinction Rebellion (abbreviated as XR) is a global environmental movement, with the stated aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and the risk o ...

occupied land in Les Vaites on the east side of

, as part of protests against an eco-development of 1150 apartments. Work had started in January 2020 on the site and was then stopped twice by legal challenges from environmental groups. After one month of occupation, the two groups handed over responsibility for the ZAD to the anonymous Zadists squatting the land. The mayor demanded that before negotiating anything, a watchtower built on the land needed to be demolished, but the Zadists refused. In August 2020, the collective of 180 people celebrated their second month of occupation.

References

Filmography

* ''Le dernier continent'', documentaire de Vincent Lapize, À perte de vue & Réel Factory, 77 min, 2015. * ''Le tarmac est dans le pré'', documentaire de Thibault Férié, Point du jour, 52 min, 2013 (diffusé en octobre 2013 sur France 3). * ''Des tracteurs contre des avions'', documentaire de Christian Baudu, Canal automedia NopubNosub, 31 min, janvier 2013. * ''Notre-Dame-des-Landes, au cœur de la lutte'', documentaire de Pierrick Morin, 70 min, mars 2012. * ''La résistance respire'', long métrage de Roxane Tchegini, Terre éveillée, 2015.

Radio

* Florian Delorme, ''Du

Rojava The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), also known as Rojava, is a de facto autonomous region in northeastern Syria. It consists of self-governing sub-regions in the areas of Afrin, Jazira, Euphrates, Raqqa, Tabqa, ...

à la Zad, l’ autogestion en partage'', Cultures Monde,
Territoires d'exception (4/4)
', France Culture, 17 May 2018 (in French).

External links

ZAD de L'AmassadaZAD du CarnetZAD du MoulinZAD de Notre-Dames-des-LandesZAD RheinlandZAD de RoybonZAD du Testet
{{Authority control 2010s in France Anarchism in France Autonomism Neologisms Politics of France Squatting in France Squatting in Germany Squatting in Switzerland Urban studies and planning terminology