Tour du Valat is a research institute for the conservation of Mediterranean wetlands which was founded more than 50 years ago by Luc Hoffmann. It is located in the heart of the Camargue and extends over an area of 2 600 hectares.
*For thousands of years, wetlands (lakes, ponds, lagoons, gravel pits, estuaries, peat bogs, alluvial valleys, pools, marshes, streams, water meadows, etc.) have provided vital resources – water, food, plants, animals, raw materials and communication routes – which are fundamental for human social, economic and cultural activities.
“in which there are natural habitats that are characteristic of the Camargue, in particular rare and threatened areas like temporary marshes, fossil dunes or montilles, and the great expanses of saline scrub or sansouires. The fauna and flora are remarkable: 590 species of plants, of which twenty are protected, more than 300 species of birds,… 1 071 ha benefited from the status of Voluntary Nature Reserve between 1984 and 2008. Since July 2008, 1 845 ha have been set under the status of Regional Nature Reserve.”
“The Tour du Valat, it is also a unique bibliographical resource centre in the Mediterranean, specialised in Wetlands Ecology, Ornithology, Zoology, Mammalogy, Ichtyology, Herpetology, Botany. Each year, hundreds of researchers, teachers and students from the Mediterranean basin come and consult the library’s reference material.”
For more information:
The Tree and The Water 