Le projet LIFE Prairies Bocagères

Quelques 250 hectares de prairies fleuries ont été restaurées en l’espace de  8 ans (2012-2020).

8 années  à protéger, planter, creuser, faucher et refaçonner nos paysages d’antan.

8 années à tenter de préserver six espèces menacées d’extinction.

8 années à mettre en place la gestion récurrente compatible avec les pratiques agricoles actuelles.

8 années à sensibiliser le public à cet univers fascinant que sont les prairies bocagères.

Le projet est maintenant terminé mais la colonisation des sites restaurés par les espèces animales et végétales ciblées ne fait que commencer. Découvrez l'ensembles des résultats de ce projet dans ce rapport vulgarisé.  (version PDF)

english version below

250 hectares of flowering meadows were restored over 8 years (2012-2020).

8 years of protecting, planting, digging, mowing, and re-creating our bocage landscapes, shaped over time by human activity, 

8 years of working to preserve six endangered species,

8 years of setting up recurrent management compatible with current agricultural practices,

8 years of raising public awareness of the fascinating world of bocage meadows.

Although the project is now complete, the colonization of restored sites by the target animals and plants species has just begun. Discover all the results of this project in this report. (PDF version)

 Shaped over the centuries by agriculture, our countryside was once a living environment extremely rich in species. Those landscapes were managed extensively and strewed with hedges, ponds, orchards. But all that wealth has declined sharply. Indeed, deep changes in agriculture have been implemented. To produce more and faster, plots have been enlarged, hedges uprooted, ponds and orchards removed. Moreover, farmers began to use fertilizers and mowed precociously. Today, only a few fragments of grassland still welcome such biodiversity. The situation truly is worrisome... Natagora, associated with Virelles-Nature, has decided to develop the project "LIFE Prairies bocagères". Its objectives are to restore hay meadows along with several other micro-habitats (hedges, ponds, embankments, orchards...) and to protect six animal species associated to those. LIFE (The Financial Instrument for the Environment) is the EU's financial instrument supporting environmental and nature conservation projects throughout the Europe. In particular, LIFE - Nature projects aim to restore and conserve endangered natural habitats and species of the EU through the Natura 2000 ecological network. The project "LIFE Prairies bocagères" is an ambitious program that will attempt:

- to establish a network of 150 hectares of meadows of high ecological value;

- to develop the grove associated with this network, focusing on the habitat of the following six species:

•  The lesser horseshoe bat
•  The greater horseshoe bat
•  The Geoffroy' bat
•  The northern crested newt
•  The red-backed shrike
•  The southern damselfly

- and to maintain those landscapes on the long term. The project will focus on 10 Natura 2000 sites, located between Chimay and Rochefort, in Fagne and Famenne in south of Belgium.