Protesters hold ‘funeral’ for site of Holcim quarry extension

Cement group Holcim is being allowed to extend its quarry at the rich natural site. © Keystone/ Valentin Flauraud

Some 250 people demonstrated late Saturday morning at a sensitive environmental site in western Switzerland where cement group Holcim is being allowed to extend a quarry.

Starting from the village of La Sarraz, the protesters went up to the Birette plateau at the Mormont site, stopping in front of the pit already dug by Holcim and throwing in a symbolic funeral wreath. Speakers included Swiss Nobel prize-winner for chemistry Jacques Dubochet.  

Alain Chanson, president of the Association to Save the Mormont, said environmental activists had been defending the site for ten years “against the voracity of Holcim”, but that the Federal Court had just “condemned it to death”.

The protest follows a decision this month by the Federal Court on appeals by three associations against the extension of the Mormont quarry. The court ruled that while Holcim could exploit the new site known as Birette, it must restore damage to the landscape afterwards.

Chanson said that “the fight goes on” to preserve what remains of the Mormont, whose environmental richness was recognized by the court.

Activists occupied the site in October 2020 in an attempt to stop the quarry extension. However, they were forcibly evacuated by police in March 2021.