A big part of the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) responsibilities is policing the environment. Their officers are part of the decentralised State administrative and judiciary system (which is to say, they are not a branch of the military like the gendarmes are, and they are appointed by the prefectures). As such they have police powers to step in to manage issues of disruption of public order, taking either preventative or ongoing action. Their areas of responsibilities can be quite broad, taking into account environment laws and the penal code, but also laws specific to forests, rural areas and marine fishing.
Their roles include checking that the detention and health of wild animals; the development of natural areas; and water quality, all meet the requirements of the law. They may work in a marine or aquatic environment, in natural areas (where they are concerned with nature protection, and the circulation of motor vehicles), protecting wildlife and geology, hunting, fishing, education and outreach, and infractions involving littering and fly tipping. So they might be booking someone riding a quadbike on a dirt track where motorised vehicles are banned, or they might be investigating the dumping of tyres in a ditch, or they might be checking the health of circus animals. According to a friend who has had cause to call them a couple of times they will arrive to investigate situations as diverse as your dog being poisoned to a farmer burning used plastic 'mulch' on a melon farm.
Environment Police in the Pyrénées National Park, photographed by me in 2023.
They work closely with the gendarmes in rural areas, and with customs officers in relation to the international trade in wild animals.
There are 3000 environment police in France and every year they conduct 20 000 checks to ensure individual or businesses are complying with the law. This work makes up two thirds of their activities. Most of these checks (31%) are conducted on hunters. Checks on the preservation of aquatic habitats are 16% of their work, and checks on water quality are another 16%.
Of those checks, 44% were on private individuals, 19% on farmers, 10% on organisations, 11% on businesses and 6% on property owners. Many of the checks (40.5%) are regular and scheduled, 22.3% are unannounced and 34.4% are in response to a complaint. Those found to be in contravention of the law will be issued with a warning or a fine (3600 in 2021). The environment police may also conduct a judicial enquiry (5900 in 2021).
In the field the officers may be expected to intervene in potentially confrontational or even violent situations. To protect themselves they wear uniforms with distinctive logos and clearly identifiable branding. They also carry handcuffs, telescopic batons and pistols, which can be used only in self-defense. They receive firearms training when they are recruited, and undergo frequent training on behaviours to adopt when dealing with the public.
The fact that they are armed is somewhat controversial, and has been a target of criticism by farmers unions, who feel it is inappropriate and unnecessarily threatening for officers to turn up armed when they visit farms. I've also been told of a case where an officer turned up at a conservation association meeting wearing his side arm (we assume because he couldn't leave it in his car, but my source commented that it seemed inappropriate).
