Just south of the Brittany village of Notre-Dame-des-Landes, a seemingly unremarkable collection of woods, marshes and fields has become the site of a unique experiment in solidarity and sustainability. A decade ago activists took up the invitation of local farmers to occupy the land and prevent the construction of an airport. They are still there a year after the airport’s cancellation, growing their victory over the project into a sustained challenge to “its world”. This is the zad, originally a bureaucratic development acronym now hijacked to mean the “Zone to Defend”.

Camille, a member ...

 

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