Living with Chlordecone: an Opportunity-based Co-construction – LiCOCO

Due to its toxic and persistent nature, chlordecone has permanently poisoned the soil, groundwater, rivers, livestock and even humans. This widespread pollution has resulted in a resurgence of cancers and significant economic. All this has contributed to a social climate of mistrust and distrust of the French government. Various plans have been put in place by the public authorities to limit contamination and exposure to chlordecone. By bringing together researchers from various disciplines, LiCOCO project intends through an integrative transdisciplinary approach to question and imagine what it is to live with chlordecone and to develop possible solutions from the point of view of public policies to this pollution. This project will review the state of the knowledge on chlordecone and its impacts; this is an essential step in order to understand how the government should envisage its prevention policy. LiCOCO will develop tools to restore trust between public authorities and populations by reappropriating the different discourses (political, scientific and lay people) and the representations that the different layers of the population have on this pollution; from this, will emerge the tracks of effective public policies of prevention. LiCOCO will make it possible to realize that dealing with the generalized pollution should not be limited to chlordecone alone but should also encompass other pesticides that are still in use. LiCOCO will develop an innovation for water decontamination whose economic accessibility will be a definite booster for the development of a zero chlordecone sector. LiCOCO will examine the monitoring infrastructure, the follow-up of environmental (de)contamination and the promise of remediation of chlordecone toxicity. LiCOCO will provide operational tools that will enable the population, public authorities and stakeholders in the fishing, agriculture and livestock sectors to better co-construct and envisage life with chlordecone.