Camargue

The Camargue Regional Nature Park was created in 1970 in the Rhône delta, between the two arms of the river and the Mediterranean, in the Provence region. It protects some 1,000 km² of a flat, amphibious landscape: brackish lagoons, marshes, rice fields, dunes, salt pans and salt meadows.

It is one of the most important wetlands in western Europe and a key point on the western Mediterranean flyway. Its emblematic bird is the greater flamingo, which has its only stable breeding colony in France here, one of the few in the Mediterranean, with thousands of pairs at the Étang du Fangassier. These are joined by herons, egrets, waders and wildfowl in very high concentrations.

The landscape is inseparable from two local breeds: the Camargue horse, white-coated and very ancient, and the Camargue bull, raised in semi-wild herds in the marshes and bound up with local bullfighting traditions, in which the animal is not killed. Water management is central to conservation and also its main conflict, because rice, salt and nature require different water regimes. The delta is a Ramsar site and has formed part of UNESCO's world network of biosphere reserves since 1977, and it is particularly exposed to rising sea levels.