Camargue - L'âme d'un sol sauvage|Karl Weber,Luc Hoffmann

||boek: Camargue - L'âme d'un sol sauvage||Sequoia

||door: Karl Weber, Luc Hoffmann

||taal: fr
||jaar: 1970
||druk: ?
||pag.: 111p
||opm.: hardcover|zo goed als nieuw|mét flap|formaat >A4

||isbn: D/1970/0027/02
||code: 2:000454

--- Over het boek (foto 1): Camargue - L'âme d'un sol sauvage ---

106 photos en noir ou en couleurs, commentées. In-fine, liste des vertébrés de la Camargue.

[source: https--www.livre-rare-book.com]

How one man's dream and good science saved a wetland treasure and sparked a global conservation movement [2019-10-25]

In the first of a new series of five stories offering insight and inspiration for contemporary conservation, we visit the iconic Camargue wetland in southern France where the appliance of science is helping protect people as well as wildlife.

Beyond borders

In Southern France, where the Rhône meets the Mediterranean Sea, there's a magical place where water and land embrace, where countless ponds, islets, marshes, reeds and streams fuse and stretch toward an infinite horizon, and blend with the sky.

The Provençal people call it the place with no borders - 'n'a cap marca'. Welcome to the Camargue - a waterland without parallel. Not just a kingdom of birds but a source of blessing and bounty for people as much as wildlife.

The science of staying alive

This is where for nearly a decade, Dr Marion Vittecoq has been exploring the relationship between human and ecosystem health. Championing a new generation of researchers at the Tour du Valat research station, her pioneering work is delivering some surprising results around antibiotic resistance and disease transmission.

"Antibiotic resistance is a serious health concern", says Marion. "We're increasingly seeing it in wildlife - probably because of exposure to human waste or rubbish. And contrary to popular belief, we've also found that domestic birds released for shooting are often infected with avian flu and may spread it to wild birds, rather than the other way around."

Understanding these interrelationships better, suggests improving waste and water management and animal husbandry are likely to be more effective solutions than mass culling wild animals, which can actually spread disease and resistance as surviving animals disperse.

"There are always trade-offs but until we recognise that everything is interconnected - wetlands, wildlife, farming, pollution, our health - we won't make good decisions", says Marion. "We can't insulate ourselves from the environment, so we need to work with nature. Healthy wetlands are critical for people as well as wildlife, and we need to keep making the case for their protection."

A young man's dream

That Marion and her team are delivering ground-breaking cross-disciplinary work is only possible because of the unique opportunity for long-term research that Tour du Valat affords. And that in itself, is the story of one man's adventure.

That man was Luc Hoffmann. In 1948, at the tender age of 25, and an heir to the Roche pharmaceutical fortune, he bought the Tour du Valat estate, imagining a centre dedicated to studying birds and this then little understood wetland.

It was a seminal moment that changed his life and marked the beginnings of what became a global conservation movement.

"My father's story is a rather improbable one", says André Hoffmann, President of the MAVA Foundation. "Someone who came from the mountains, settled in the marshes and set his mind to explaining to local people the benefits wetlands could bring. It wasn't easy!"

At the time, only Luc and a handful of other people grasped the scale of the threat facing the Camargue from drainage, intensive farming, development and tourism.

"Everywhere in the Camargue, people were trying to control a land considered hostile. It was becoming increasingly urgent to protect this magical place." --Luc Hoffmann

Critically, what Luc also understood was that success meant not just protecting wildlife but also demonstrating the value of nature for people, and debunking the myth that ecosystems like wetlands were places of disease, fit only for reclamation.

More than an ivory tower

When the research station opened in 1954, the Tour du Valat estate soon became a giant field laboratory in which different conservation approaches could be assessed.

Back then, such an approach was unheard of - it was the first institute in France to put biological research into action - but today, it is world renowned precisely because its research is applied, practical and long-term.

"Tour du Valat can manipulate water and salinity levels across the estate, testing how different regimes affect birds, farmland and grazing", says Paule Gros, Mediterranean Programme Director at the MAVA Foundation. "Its half century of research covers a timescale that accommodates the pace of natural processes. It's unique and what gives the institute such credibility."

In many places, wetlands remain undervalued, seen as disease-ridden wastelands to be developed, drained or farmed, their water put to use. And using science to find trade-offs that work for both people and wildlife is Tour du Valat's recipe for success.

"We're not here just to research but to put our knowledge to good use", says Jean Jalbert, Tour du Valat's Director General. "Every day is different. It might be something strategic for the Mediterranean or something local, like dealing with rice farmers whose paddies our flamingos love to invade!"

Rice farming in the Camargue has created large paddies without hedges, making the crop susceptible to damage from visiting flamingos who find the open landscape attractive. Smaller paddies and a more mixed landscape with trees is one answer. Demonstrating solutions not only helps overcome resistance from local farmers but helps make the case for using them elsewhere.

"We've developed powerful tools that help wetland managers predict outcomes and track encroachment using satellite imagery in countries like Libya where data are scarce" says Jean. "But providing decision-makers with the perfect report isn't enough. We also need to change perceptions about the value of wetlands for well-being and development."

The international appliance of science

From monitoring changes affecting wetlands and assessing their value, to developing new management approaches and unravelling the mysteries of disease transmission, applied research has made Tour du Valat the first port of call for public authorities and research institutes alike.

Collaboration with conservation partners like BirdLife, Wetlands International, WWF and many others, has seen application of its research across the Mediterranean and beyond, including in Prespa and Doñana - the focus of future stories in this series.

Perhaps most significantly, it also helped create the MedWet Initiative - a Ramsar Regional Initiative focused on wetland management - and hosts the Mediterranean Wetlands Observatory which produces papers and reports on the status and socio-economic value of Mediterranean wetlands designed to inform public policy.

Science + advocacy = impact

"Ornithologists lacked precise information and quantitative data so no one realised the Camargue was under threat. That was why it hadn't occurred to anyone that it might need defending." --Luc Hoffmann

Fieldwork and good science are the foundation for conservation but pure research alone is not enough. To influence positive change, it must also reveal value and signpost solutions. For the Camargue and wetlands everywhere, this means making the social, economic and political case for conservation.

Conservation Lesson #1 - Science & Advocacy

Do good science and make sure it addresses real-world challenges. And for real impact, add advocacy with partners, informed by practical solutions and evidence of nature's value.

Whether through quiet, informed diplomacy or more direct campaigns, joint advocacy with partners based on its research has become a hallmark of Tour du Valat's way of working.

Working the inside track, such is the station's reputation that it is now part of the French national delegation to the Ramsar Convention and was recently invited to help shape France's contribution to the Global Biodiversity Assessment from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

In contrast, spearheading the new Mediterranean Wetland Alliance, which brings together 18 international NGOs and six research organisations, Tour du Valat is also helping partners collaborate and better protect wetlands.

Its 'Red Alert' system monitors wetlands around the Mediterranean and sounds the alarm when a wetland is in danger or threatened by inappropriate development, helping propose constructive solutions and coordinate lobbying efforts.

Doga Dernegi's recent success in permanently halting the construction of a major highway along the coast of Izmir Bay, for example, not only saved the Gediz Delta - a Ramsar site and home to nearly a third of the European population of Greater flamingos - but also highlighted the vital role that civil society can play in increasing public understanding of wetlands' value and mobilising support for their protection.
Let nature be nature

With a quarter of the Camargue already become agricultural land and coastal urbanisation continuing apace, how can we save what remains as well as secure thriving wetlands around the world?

The simple answer is by prioritising nature and mainstreaming investments that support natural systems.

With 70% of the Camargue less than a metre above sea level, climate change and sea level rise mean flooding is inevitable. Might it be better to let the area flood naturally now, in a controlled manner, working with rather than against nature?

Wetlands of all kinds offer the best flood and storm surge protection available. And natural infrastructure is our best chance of successfully mitigating the worst impacts of climate change.

Investing in nature-based solutions, including smarter management of farmland and wetlands, has the potential to deliver 30% of the climate solutions we need by 2030. And yet such solutions currently receive only around 2.5% of public climate financing.

With growing recognition that environmental risks pose the gravest of threats to the global economy, we have an opportunity to change course. In the fight for survival, nature should be our greatest ally.

By championing the appliance of science, demonstrating solutions, and delivering powerful advocacy, Tour du Valat is making the case for the kind of investment and action needed to put nature on the path to recovery and deliver prosperity for all.

"Conservation is not the protection of nature against human development, but the preservation of life supporting systems and processes as a basis for a lasting development." --Luc Hoffmann

Justin Woolford for the MAVA Foundation [source: https--mava-foundation.org/library/how-one-mans-dream-and-good-science-saved-a-wetland-treasure-and-sparked-a-global-conservation-movement]

--- Over (foto 2): Karl Weber ---

Nationalité: Suisse
Né(e): 1936
Biographie:

Karl Weber né en 1936 est le co-auteur suisse d'un livre sur la Camargue publié en 1970.

En activité à Rheinfelden, Suisse (en 1970)

[source: https--www.babelio.com/auteur/Karl-Weber/60686]

--- Over (foto 3): Luc Hoffmann ---

Nationalité: Suisse
Né(e) à: Bâle, le 23/01/1923
Mort(e) à: Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône, le 21/07/2016
Biographie:

Hans Lukas Hoffmann dit Luc Hoffmann est un ornithologue, défenseur de l'environnement et philanthrope suisse.

Il est le petit-fils de Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche (1868-1920), fondateur de la société Hoffmann-La Roche en 1896. Son père meurt dans un accident de voiture quand il a neuf ans, et l'année suivante, son frère aîné est emporté par une leucémie. Sa mère épouse ensuite le compositeur suisse Paul Sacher (1906-1999). Malgré la fortune considérable de la famille, Hoffmann est élevé de façon très modeste.

En 1941, il s'inscrit à l'université de Bâle pour étudier la zoologie. En 1943, il est appelé dans l'armée suisse où il obtiendra le rang de lieutenant. Après la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, Luc Hoffmann se lance dans la recherche scientifique et soutient une thèse consacrée aux différents motifs de couleurs des oisillons de la Sterne pierregarin (Sterna hirundo) en Camargue.

En 1948, Luc Hoffmann achète une propriété en Camargue (France) et en 1954, il y implante la station de recherche biologique de la Tour du Valat.

Luc Hoffmann est l'un des membres fondateurs du Fonds mondial pour la nature (WWF) en 1961. Il en devient vice-président lors de la réunion constitutive et assume ces fonctions jusqu'en 1988. Il est nommé vice-président d'honneur en 1998. Hoffmann contribue à créer le Parc national de Doñana en Andalousie en 1963.

Luc Hoffmann est un des initiateurs de la Convention de Ramsar sur les zones humides, l'un des premiers traités intergouvernementaux destinés à protéger l'environnement signé en 1971.

En 2008, Luc Hoffmann instaure à Arles un cadre permanent appelé Fondation Vincent Van Gogh Arles, pour les activités destinées à préserver la mémoire de Vincent Van Gogh et à encourager l'art contemporain.

En 1953, à Vienne, Luc Hoffmann épouse Daria Razoumovski (1925-2002), deuxième fille du comte Andrei Razoumovski et de la princesse Katharina Nikolaievna Sayn-Wittgenstein, qui ont fui la Russie en 1918 après la révolution d'Octobre. Le couple a quatre enfants: Vera, Maja, André et Daschenka.

[source: https--www.babelio.com/auteur/Lukas-Hoffmann/349368]

Hans Lukas "Luc" Hoffmann (23 January 1923 - 21 July 2016) was a Swiss ornithologist, conservationist, and philanthropist. He co-founded the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), helped establish the Ramsar Convention for the protection of wetlands, and set up the Tour du Valat [fr] research centre in the Camargue area of France.

In 2012, Luc Hoffmann's MAVA Foundation, along with WWF International, established the Luc Hoffmann Institute. He was the author of more than 60 books, mostly ornithological.

Early life

Luc Hoffmann was born in Basel, the second son of the businessman and art-lover Emanuel Hoffmann and the sculptor Maja Hoffmann-Stehlin. The following year, Luc's older brother died of leukemia.

His widowed mother remarried, to Swiss composer Paul Sacher. Despite the family's great wealth, Hoffmann was raised frugally. His enthusiasm for the natural world developed during his childhood and he spent much of his free time bird watching in the Basel area. His first academic paper, "Der Durchzug der Strandvögel in der Umgebung Basels" (The passage of seabirds in the vicinity of Basel) appeared in Der Ornithologische Beobachter (The Bird Observer) in 1941, when he was still a schoolboy.

In 1941, Hoffman enrolled at the University of Basel, studying botany and zoology. In 1943 he was conscripted into the Swiss Army, rising to the rank of lieutenant.

After the end of the Second World War, Hoffmann conducted scientific research and earned a doctorate (PhD) for his work on the different colour patterns of the chicks of the common tern (Sterna hirundo) in the Camargue on the Mediterranean coast of France. His supervisor at the University of Basel was Adolf Portmann.

Conservation work

In 1947, Hoffmann bought an estate in the Camargue. In 1954 he established the Tour du Valat biological research station on it. The continued presence of greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) in France has been attributed to conservation work conducted at Tour du Valat. Hoffmann also supported breeding of Przewalski's horse (Equus ferus przewalskii) nearby and the reintroduction of the indigenous animals to their native Mongolia in 2004.

Generations of ecologists have trained at Tour du Valat, including John Krebs. More than 60 Ph.D.s have been awarded for research conducted at Tour du Valat by students enrolled at universities in France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Canada and the United Kingdom. From 1953 to 1996, Hoffmann was on the board of Hoffmann-la Roche.

With Peter Scott, Julian Huxley, Max Nicholson and others, Hoffmann became a founder member in 1961 of the World Wildlife Fund. He was appointed as its vice-president at the inaugural meeting and served in that role until 1988. He was made vice-president emeritus in 1998. Hoffmann helped establish the Doñana National Park in Andalusia in 1963. He also helped set up the national appeal in Austria in 1963. In the 1980s he served as president of the French national appeal.

Hoffmann was one of the founding fathers of the Ramsar Convention, one of the first intergovernmental treaties to protect the environment. The convention aims to conserve wetlands: land that is permanently or periodically covered by shallow water and which typically hosts migratory birds. Some 160 countries have so far contracted to protect their wetlands under the convention, which was devised in 1971 and came into force in 1975.

In 1994, Hoffmann established the MAVA Foundation, which distributes grants for nature conservation in the Mediterranean, the west coast of Africa and the Alps. Yolande Clergue's original ambition to create a Fondation Van Gogh was given new momentum by Luc Hoffmann, who established a permanent framework in 2008 called Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles for activities designed to preserve the memory of Vincent van Gogh in Arles and to foster contemporary art.

In 2012, The MAVA Foundation and WWF International established the Luc Hoffmann Institute to honour the conservation legacy of Luc Hoffmann. The Institute focuses on catalyzing new scientific ideas to solve this century's increasingly complex and interconnected conservation challenges. His son, André Hoffmann, is on the Institute's Advisory Board.

Hoffmann also made significant contributions to nature conservation in: the Neusiedler See in Austria; the Hortobágy National Park in Hungary; the Prespa region that straddles Greece, Albania and Macedonia; and the Banc d'Arguin National Park in Mauritania.

In 2003, a major endowment in honour of Hoffmann's eightieth birthday provided for establishment of the Luc Hoffmann Chair in Field Ornithology at Oxford University's Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology.

Awards

• Honorary Doctorate from the University of Basel (2001)
• Euronature-Environmental Prize (2007)
• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1973)
• Chevalier of the National Order of the Légion d'honneur (1989)
• Duke of Edinburgh Conservation Medal, awarded by the World Wide Fund for Nature (1998)
• John C Phillips Medal, awarded by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (2004).
• Honorary Doctorate Degree from Business School Lausanne (2013)

Marriage and family

Hoffmann's grandfather, Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche, founded the company Hoffmann-La Roche in 1896. He was the son of industrialist Emanuel "Manno" Hoffmann (1896-1932) and sculptor Maja born Stehlin (1896-1989), and the brother of Vera Oeri-Hoffmann.

Hoffman's family is the majority shareholder in the pharmaceuticals company Hoffmann-La Roche. He used his wealth to endow the MAVA Foundation, which funds nature conservation projects worldwide. He was a chevalier of the National Order of the Légion d'honneur and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In 1953, in Vienna, Hoffmann married Daria Razumovsky (1925-2002), the second child of Count Andreas Razumovsky and Princess Katharina Nikolajevna Sayn-Wittgenstein, who fled Russia in 1918 after the October Revolution. Together they had four children: Vera, Maja, André, and Daschenka.

[source: wikipedia]

Doctor Honoris Causa 2013

Dr. Luc Hoffmann, Co-founder of WWF, received the Honorary Degree of BSL in 2013 in recognition of his exceptional contribution to the global conservation of nature and biodiversity.

Born in Basel in 1923, Dr. Luc Hoffmann is the grandson of Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche, who founded the company Hoffmann La Roche in 1896. He studied at the Basel University and obtained his Ph.D. in Zoology in 1952. Dr. Hoffmann was member of the board of Hoffmann-La Roche & Co from 1953 to 1990 and Vice-President from 1990 to 1996.

Dr. Luc Hoffmann has always been interested in the conservation of nature and very active in this domain. It would be difficult to mention all his initiatives in that field, but here are a few examples: In 1954, he founded the Station Biologique de la Tour du Valat in Southern France, a private research institute devoted to the study and management of wetlands. He was Managing Director of the station for twenty years. In 1958, he started to collaborate with IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and was appointed Vice-President from 1960 to 1969. In September 1961, he was one of the co-founders of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and was Vice-President of the Board from 1961 to 1988. He also directed in 1961 the MAR project, which ultimately resulted in an international convention for the protection of wetlands of international importance, known as the Ramsar Convention, and signed in 1971.

Dr. Hoffmann was actively involved in the creation of several natural parks and reserves in France, Greece and Mauritania. In 1994, Dr. Hoffmann founded the MAVA Foundation for the protection of nature, and became Chairman of its Board. Luc Hoffmann is the author of more than 60 publications in the field of ornithology, wetlands ecology and conservation.

[source https--www.bsl-lausanne.ch/people/luc-hoffmann]

Luc HoffmanN, le fondateur de la tour du valat

Né à Bâle en Suisse, Luc Hoffmann, petit-fils du fondateur de la société pharmaceutique Hoffmann-La Roche, aujourd'hui Roche, passionné par la nature depuis son plus jeune âge, s'oriente rapidement vers la zoologie et plus particulièrement l'ornithologie.

C'est dans ce contexte scientifique qu'il découvre après la fin de la Seconde guerre mondiale la Camargue, dont il tombe immédiatement amoureux. Il acquiert en 1948 la Tour du Valat, vaste domaine au coeur de la Camargue, et y fonde en 1954 la station biologique éponyme qui deviendra rapidement une référence mondiale pour l'ornithologie, où plusieurs générations d'écologues et de chercheurs du monde entier se succéderont.

La Tour du Valat élargira au fil des ans son champ d'action et deviendra, quelques décennies plus tard, institut de recherche pour la conservation des zones humides méditerranéennes.

Parallèlement à ses activités liées à la Tour du Valat, Luc Hoffmann laisse également un immense héritage dans le domaine de la conservation de la nature au niveau international.

Luc Hoffmann s'est éteint le 21 juillet 2016 en sa résidence camarguaise, à l'âge de 93 ans.

[source: https--tourduvalat.org/fondation-tour-du-valat/luc-hoffmann]