By Maëlle Lions
BAGNEUX, France, Oct 09 (Sciences Po) - It’s a cool Saturday morning at the cemetery of Bagneux, south of Paris, and 15 birdwatchers, binoculars around their necks, are trundling between tombstones and columbariums, looking for life among the dead.
Like many Paris cemeteries over the past decade, Bagneux – an ‘extramural’ Parisian cemetery two kilometers south of the capital – has progressively banned the use of pesticides dug up asphalt walkways and let nature run its course, gradually turning a once barren landscape into a haven of biodiversity.
A study by the Ile-de-France Regional Biodiversity Agency (ARB) shows that between 2020 and 2023, Bagneux’ cemetery was home to more than 100 different plants, 26 species of birds, as well as a range of insect pollinators and micro mammals such as hedgehogs, shrews and red squirrels.
“Oh, a Spotted Woodpecker. Did you hear it?” said Annette Bonhomme, leader of Bagneux’s local birdwatching association, a pioneer birders’ group in Paris’ suburbs, as they approach Walnut Alley, named – like all the cemetery lanes - after the trees that line them. Walnut trees are a favorite stopover for woodpeckers.
With its 62 hectares and 83,000 graves, Bagneux is the third-biggest of Paris’ 20 cemeteries, after Thiais and Pantin, and unlike the famous Pere Lachaise cemetery in central Paris, it has relatively few celebrity graves. But what it lacks in colourful dead, it makes up in feathery wildlife: robins, tits and ring-necked parakeets, but also raptors such as kestrel falcons or the sparrowhawk make it a birder’s paradise.
"Cemeteries are quiet places, fairly isolated from human activity, with few users, with the exception of very touristy cemeteries such as Père Lachaise", said Jonathan Flandin, ecologist and leader of the ARB cemetery study.
"The fact that they are closed at night and not lit up is a big advantage for biodiversity compared to urban parks and gardens, which are very busy and even over-crowded", he added.
But the cemeteries’ gardening policies also play a major role in boosting biodiversity, said Flandin, who, with his team, has studied and compared 45 cemeteries in the Paris’ region.
Their studies show that one third of Ile-de-France's flora, half of its bird species and almost all of its bats find shelter in cemeteries.
In Père Lachaise, Agnès Thomas, head of the green space subdivision of Parisian cemeteries, and her colleague Nicolas Robin, an ecologist, are proud to show the grass that’s now growing near and in between the famous cemetery’s paving stones.
Implementing city hall’s 2012 Biodiversity Plan, Paris cemeteries stopped using all pesticides and biocides from 2015. They had already been phasing all types of chemical products since 2001, years before the 2017 “Labbé law”, which bans public administrations from using pesticides. Paris was years ahead, as a national ban on pesticides in cemeteries did not take effect until July 1, 2022.
As Paris cemeteries’ gardeners did away with gravel and manicured lawns, a more natural vegetation sprouted on and besides the pathways.
"It has completely changed the face of cemeteries” said Thomas. "We saw butterflies, ladybirds, and many species of flowers return”.
During the first 2020 lockdown, even the fox made a comeback in Père Lachaise.
In Bagneux, the asphalt surfaces of the secondary pathways were removed and replaced by forest pathways in 2017. An abundance of bushes yields berries and grains for the animals and birds, while the great height of most of its trees provides safe nesting spaces.
In Lachaise, Agnès Thomas acknowledged they could do “even better” in terms of wildlife preservation but they said a cemetery's priority remains to ensure that everyone has access to the tombstones.
She added that the profusion of vegetation initially generated a strong backlash from the families of the deceased, who interpreted the growth of grass and bushes everywhere as neglect.
“We still have to change the way people see nature” said Lachaise ecologist Robin, noting that gardeners for example are not picking up dead vegetation anymore to let it be “part of the landscape”, a practice that couldn’t have been done a few years back.
Good communication on biodiversity is crucial, he said, as some users still use bleach to clean tombstones, a practice prohibited by the bill of specifications but that the city hall is struggling to control.
As the cemeteries’s tranquility not only attracts biodiversity but also the youth and families who want to enjoy a peaceful walk, the city hall hopes this can be an opportunity for the users to notice the flore and fauna around them.
Yet, according to Bagneux’s local enthusiasts, the biggest problem remains the lack of knowledge and misconceptions on what nature is or should be.
"The real biodiversity is dirty, stings and leaves you with itchy legs", said Michel Durand while walking on Bagneux’s forest pathway. He himself organizes observation tours in Bois de Boulogne, an 846 hectares park in Paris’s west.
“We are good compared to other cities, said Nicolas Robin, but we are still late compared to the needs of the reality”.
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