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Zone to Defend
Zone to Defend or ZAD (French: zone à défendre) is a French neologism used to refer to the site of an activist 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 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, Bas-Rhin, Doubs, Isère, Loire-Atlantique, Meuse, Seine-Maritime, Tarn and Yvelines. The occupation of the 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.
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 Décines-Charpieu.
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 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 squat protesting against the expansion of Heathrow Airport in London.
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.
Activists began a solidarity project called ZAD Patate in 2013, which opposed the destruction of market gardens on the plain of Montesson. In the Yvelines department, twenty kilometres to the west of central Paris, 400 small holdings were producing half of all the salad greens consumed in the capital. In 2014, plans to expand the commercial zone were halted, but the guerrilla gardening 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 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.
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Zone to Defend
Zone to Defend or ZAD (French: zone à défendre) is a French neologism used to refer to the site of an activist 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 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, Bas-Rhin, Doubs, Isère, Loire-Atlantique, Meuse, Seine-Maritime, Tarn and Yvelines. The occupation of the 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.
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 Décines-Charpieu.
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 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 squat protesting against the expansion of Heathrow Airport in London.
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.
Activists began a solidarity project called ZAD Patate in 2013, which opposed the destruction of market gardens on the plain of Montesson. In the Yvelines department, twenty kilometres to the west of central Paris, 400 small holdings were producing half of all the salad greens consumed in the capital. In 2014, plans to expand the commercial zone were halted, but the guerrilla gardening 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 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.
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