A small group is active in the middle of the tombs of the cemetery of Mons. Yet no funerals, the members of this group are nature lovers who came to discover the living in the kingdom of the dead. To see it, they have to bend down and look down. This is where we discover an unsuspected treasure.
Because the cemetery of Mons is a very special island of nature where we find plants and insects that we see nowhere else. “We are on sandy calcareous soilsexplains Pascal Dupriez, from the Walloon Department for the Study of the Natural and Agricultural Environment. This soil generates a rather particular vegetation. Since it’s sand, it attracts solitary bees and tiger bees. “
With human activity, natural areas like these are becoming rare. But the ground of the cemetery has been very little modified. Efforts are made jointly by the European Union, Wallonia and the city of Mons to preserve this type of environment. On Monday, a first targeted uprooting session was organised. Because on the side of rare species, there are those which have no place here which must be eliminated one by one by hand.
On the side of the city, this interview was only a first step. Other sessions are planned, perhaps with the support of schools.