Five people having committed environmental offences participated, on October 8th and 9th, in the first citizenship training course dedicated to the environment in Saint-Martin. Organized by the Judicial Control and Investigation Service (SCJE) from Guadeloupe, with the Nature Reserve local et theFrench Biodiversity Office, this measure proposed by the prosecutor's office as alternative to prosecution aims to prevent recurrence.
Rather than a court appearance, an opportunity to understand. Offered to first-time offendersthat is to say, people who have committed a first offense, for low to medium severity environmental incidentsThis civic internship has as follows: goal of to make the rule understandablebut also what it protects, in a territory where natural balances are fragile.
Among five individuals summonedOne resides in Saint-Martin and four in Saint-Barthélemy. Their offenses mainly concerned... acts of illegal fishing and illicit marketing of fishery products, but also a illegal oil spill on a beach.
On the first day, discussions focused on environmental law and the consequences of prohibited behaviors on our islands' ecosystems. The following day, the five defendants put their knowledge into practice with a mangrove clearing and planting operation in the mangrove. “The idea is tocombining criminal justice response, education and accountability", Explain Audrey Montantin, head of the SCJE Guadeloupe establishment.
Preventing recurrence
Present at the launch of the internship, the public prosecutor from Basse-Terre, Stéphanie Bazart, emphasizes that he is It is difficult to quantify environmental offences committed in the Northern Islands: “Not all lead to prosecution; some generally require an administrative rather than a criminal response.”
The magistrate, however, emphasizes the necessity of these internships, which generally allow for a awareness which “exceeds the offense committed”The participants then become... relaying information to their relatives and sometimes prevent offenses in this way. Experienced for three years in GuadeloupeAccording to Audrey Montantin, the device did not register No repeat offenses were reported among the participants in the environmental training course..
Mandatory and subject to a feeThis training course is based on the same principle as road safety awareness courses or courses on accountability for perpetrators of domestic violence. A new training course in Saint-Martin is planned. within four to five months. _DR
