Bear, gray wolf or forest cat, isard, capercaillie, ptarmigan, Mercury agrion… An open-air laboratory for intelligent cohabitation with respected nature, the reserve, labeled IUCN, is renewing its management plan for the OFB. A success.
It was a very popular evening. Celebrating nature and pastoralismbut also the good understanding between man and his natural ecosystem. A real moment of exchange, a summary of the good management of this original reserve, one of only twelve existing on this model in France where the uses coexist. An end of the year where nature is invited at the same time as the inhabitants ofOrlu and Orgeix for a moment of exchange. The two emblematic villages have a treasure that they rub shoulders with every day, a rich biodiversity in a territory which has just seen the rare renewal IUCN label, International Union for Conservation of Nature. And its management plan for the next ten years.
Label of the International Union for Conservation of Nature
There are only a few hundred places protected by this label in the world which have obtained it: large American and Chinese parks, etc. Some of which the Camargue or the Cerbère-Banyuls marine reserve, in Occitanie. And the tiny Orlu reserve of 4,250 hectares. “We had this label five years ago and here it is renewed after evaluation. At the same time we signed an agreement with the State, the OFB… This crowns the important partnership work with the OFB, the employees of the reserve and the State.” There was also the presentation of the management plan for this reserve before the prefect and all.
Reserve created by Augustin Bonrepaux
Including Alain Naudy, mayor of Orlu – “A town of 7,000 hectares which belongs to its inhabitants is rare!”– gives context: “This nature reserve was created in 1925 by a world arsenic magnate: Maurice Burrus. He had bought part of the estate, more than 6,000 hectares, to the lord of Orlu for his pleasure. He sold it in the early 1960s to Cellulose d'Aquitaine in Saint-Gaudens to cut wood and make paper pulp. But, after seven to eight years, the estate was put up for sale in 1973. My predecessor, the famous Augustin Bonrepaux, deputy and president of the general council and who was president of the finance committee of the National Assembly, had this idea of buying back the surface of the reserve.
We bought together, Orlu and Orgeix, mountains via a pastoral forestry union, created for the occasion”
In 1974, just 50 years ago, “we bought together, Orlu and Orgeix, mountains via a pastoral forestry union, created for the occasion”formula Alain Naudy. The mayor of Orlu specifies: “As we sold timber from these 4,250 hectares, it became a union group.” A 36-year loan, until 2010, was necessary. “We then consulted the residents – we work a lot like that here – to find out who was going to manage it. There was the hunting federation and the OFB. Initially, it was only a hunting reserve: here, there are one or more hunters per family and the hunting card is not expensive (€20) which is sold by the local union. Today, there is rigorous shooting, with only three bullets, a designated animal, we don't do anything.”
Located on the borders of the Ariège and Catalan Pyrenees, the Orlu national hunting and wildlife reserve extends in the upper part of the Ariège valley, over an area of nearly 4,250 hectares. Established in 1981, these reserves were part of the study and conservation of mountain wildlife, particularly the chamois and the capercaillie. Who have their sanctuary there but open, alive.
Here, in this reserve, when the Isards cough, it is the inhabitants who are sick. We have a very strong link with the Isards of this region for the good reason that there are a lot of… hunters”
It is the French Biodiversity Office which manages the brand new National Hunting and Wildlife Reserve (RNCFS) of Orlu, in Occitanie. “Here, we are not like owners who rent out a property to no longer take care of it, deciphers Alain Naudy. In this reserve, when the Isards cough, it is the inhabitants who are sick. We have a very strong link with the Isards of this region for the good reason that there are a lot of… hunters. So it’s a link that can kill. The Isard is the symbol of the reserve.”
State grant of €209,000 over three years
“The State, to get people more interested in heritage protection, pays what it calls amenities: an allocation of €209,000 over three years. Who will be able in the future to have a strong protection zone where we could explain the research carried out there on the fauna and flora. We already had an evening on the desman that we had managed to trap to observe it. It was equipped with GPS beacons; it is a little-known animal and the two captures in autumn 2023 and spring 2024 allowed us to learn a lot about the life of this small mammal. Whose distribution area is declining, especially in the foothills, because of water quality and global warming.”
“The reserve, a development tool”
Alain Naudy specifies: “I have always considered this reserve to be a development tool.” Refuges, rental of summer pastures, sale of wood (for €250,000 not long ago)… The inhabitants of the valley reap the benefits of this purchase. It is also an additional element for tourism in Ariège; this also brings people to multiple structures like Montanéo, which Dis-Leurs told you about HERE. “To make campsites and lodges work: this reserve has become an economic development tool. The prefect also underlined the fact that we have seized this reserve. There are few reserves of this type managed by the State. But very few, three or four, for which the residents are so invested.”
Bear, gray wolf or forest cat, chamois, capercaillie, ptarmigan, Mercury agrion…
This area (with a surface area of just over half of the Thau pond) is home to numerous animal species characteristic of mountain environments: mammals with desman of the Pyrenees, bats, the brown bear, gray wolf or the forest cat, isard… Among the birds, we can cite capercaillie, bearded vulture, red kite, griffon vulture, rock ptarmigan, gray mountain partridge, red-billed chough, black woodpecker, red-fronted blackbird, Tengmalm's owl. The area is even home to remarkable insects like the Croisette azure and the Mercury agrion. Or even the cotton grass and the large gate.
The reserve is included in the Natura 2000 perimeter
Due to the habitats and endemic species present on the site, the territory of the reserve is included within a perimeter of the network Natura 2000 under the two European Habitats and Birds directives. Pastoralism and tourism, like other activities, also take place on the territory of the reserve.
High-altitude moors and lawns, hay meadows in the mountains
The habitats, precisely. Due to its large surface area and its altitudinal amplitude, the Orlu RNCFS presents a mosaic: high-altitude moors and grasslands whose conservation is strongly influenced by pastoral activities, and to a lesser extent by tourist attendance; forest environments, little impacted by forest management, but potentially subject to the impact of large ungulates (notably deer) and the impact of pastoralism on the edges (burning, trampling, on pasture). This corner of Ariège also has wetlands; hay meadows of the mountain level impacted by agricultural abandonment and rock-hewn environments.
Hunting reserve and animal protection
Xavier Rozec is one of two OFB agents assigned to the Orlu reserve. A ten-year management plan, validated again on April 24, 2024, by the steering committee, makes it possible to set long-term objectives for this territory: open environments, wetlands and pastoralism, with, for example: water management and hydroelectricity. , protection of wetlands and watercourses, maintenance of open environments and habitat mosaics, scientific research concerning habitats and heritage species (chais, desman, capercaillie, etc.)
A reserve which is located, dare we say, between the trout reserve and the Mediterranean tuna fattening farm. “This natural hunting and wildlife reserve has a somewhat special status. Since the beginning, its primary purpose has been to protect game in order to keep it in good health and to be able, among other things, to release it in other territories.corrects Xavier Rozec. This was the case of the izards in the Pyrenees National Park, in particular. Another objective: the protection of certain animals, such as the chamois, the marmot or the capercaillie, whose “we are recording a decrease in populations at the national level and in the Pyrenees”. Which makes Xavier Rozec say that the balance sheet is “halftone”, no doubt climate change plays a big role.
The deer in the Orlu reserve have a very strong impact on the blueberry plants!
Finally, the area is a territory for studying different species. Some samples are authorized but with strict rules: you cannot hunt, and even then these are only a few samples authorized. Only six deer – a species that has only been present in the reserve since the 1990s – were killed this year, for example. They have a very strong impact on the… blueberry plants which they love! And more broadly “all plants that grow in the forest”. There are also some samples of chamois – the population of which has a higher density in the reserve than elsewhere in the Pyrenees – for scientific purposes: health monitoring.
Forty years of studying the izard there
He specifies: “For example, we have been working on chamois for 40 years. That we equip ourselves with GPS collars, visual collars to observe them from a distance.” Enough to observe and document a decline in chamois populations: “It was at one point divided, in the reserve, by three between the beginning of the 1990s and 500 ten years later, due to two successive illnesses.” It is also perhaps linked to an over-density of chamois at a certain period: more numerous, these animals were also smaller than today. So less fit.
20,000 people per year at the bottom of the reserve
“Many veterinary theses have been carried out on this reserve. Currently, we are working a lot on climate change, on the interactions between wild animals and domestic animals, using the chamois as a model. We equip them with GPS to see how they interact; we study human use: some 20,000 people visit the lower part of the reserve each year, over the months of summer, spring and fall.” In the upper part, it's not a rupee of starling: “Around 4,000 visitors per year.”
Exhibitions imagined in the En-Beys refuge
A reserve which has just had its management plan renewed at the start of 2024. “With the creation of the OFB, we have broader ambitions in terms of knowledge and protection of biodiversity. We use the same methodology as in national nature reserves. We are still very interested in the capercaillie, the chamois and the ptarmigan, but we do not refrain from looking after species located in the Pyrenees. Like the desman.”
Organizing an evening to review a year of management that all those involved hope to be annual is good. But communicating more broadly and more broadly towards the general public is an objective, for example “through exhibitions at the guarded En-Beys refuge at an altitude of 1,950 meters, owned by the municipality, where more than 4,500 people sleep each year”. Not to mention the many walkers we can talk to. And send messages.
Olivier SCHLAMA
