The Voulzie basin is 70 km south-east of Paris. The aquifer is the main groundwater resource in Ile-de-France and a very important drinking water source for Paris. Eau de Paris is a public organisation in charge of managing water resources for Paris.

As the aquifer is located in an area of intensive agriculture, one the main challenges for Eau de Paris is the protection of water resources while also meeting the local needs of territories. Eau de Paris is particularly active in promoting agri-environment measures to reduce nitrate and pesticide use. Eau de Paris promotes agricultural practice changes using agri-environment measures organised together with local farmers. It closely follows their application and their impact on water quality in order to identify agronomic actions or land use that have a limited impact. The good cooperation between stakeholders in La Voulzie basin is illustrated by:

• The agri-environmental measures taken - these have slightly changed over time but include: conservation of biodiversity, fertilization and pesticide reduction.
• Farmer involvement - in addition to the agri-environmental measures for which the farmers receive monetary compensation, farmers also develop individual and voluntary initiatives (e.g agroforestery managed plots).
• Intense pesticide and fertilizer monitoring.

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