Direct Action Direct Action

Notre-Dame-des-Landes, a predominantly agricultural area in northwest France, was occupied by squatters in the early 2000s to prevent the construction of a regional airport. A community of activists and farmers, twice forcibly evicted by the state, finally achieved the project's cancellation in 2018. Their victory is the most successful example of the French anti-development movement known as ZAD (Zone à défendre). Today, ZAD serves as a national and international organisational platform for activists, and in 2021, it gave rise to a new environmental movement, Les Soulèvements de la Terre.