2023-12-17 08:18:00
This transformation of the edge is one of the most visible elements of the development plan currently being implemented in this “experimental forest”, the result of a collaboration between the Walloon Region and the Pairi Daiza foundation launched there. five years ago on some 1680 hectares. “Our objective is to restore an environment, restore resilience to the forest and develop a laboratory forest in order to offer solutions to climate change. And we also want to find a natural space that is enchanting for visitors,” summarizes Stéphane Abras, head of the Nassogne cantonment at the Department of Nature and Forests of the Walloon Region.
The freshly planted edge in place of the conifers. ©cameriere ennio
Although the construction of the management and development plan for Nassonia took a good two and a half years, the team has already been able to successfully complete the restoration of some 200 hectares: digging of ponds, restoration of heather moors, natural meadows , plantation improvements… In addition, 15 km of network of hedges and edges have been created, with more than 40,000 plants.” If you come back in five years, you will see that there is birch, maple, elderberry, mountain ash… A little further on, we even have raspberry which came back on its own,” explains the naturalist Gérard Jadoul, showing the new edge freshly planted in place of the spruce trees. “There is an artificial side. We could have gotten there naturally, but it would have taken two hundred years! There, we are giving a boost,” rejoices Stéphane Abras, who recalls that spruce trees constitute an environment with poor biodiversity. On the other hand, this stepped border will produce quite a few flowers and fruits. This will be interesting from a landscaping point of view because the landscape will be much more softened. But all these shrubs will also attract birds and insects and will also be able to be eaten by large fauna.”
The return of the heather
The deer will also be able to go and quench their thirst right next door, in the two large ponds about to be dug in the large clearing. This area is currently covered with yellowish savannah grass – molinia – but the Nassonia team also hopes to bring back the heather, thanks to ongoing work on stripping, which consists of removing the surface layer of the ground. “The idea is to sow heather. This entire high plateau of Saint-Hubert-Nassogne was formerly covered with heather, which is an extremely rich habitat in terms of biodiversity for foragers, then for birds which eat foragers, etc.,” explains Gérard Jadoul, managing director of Ecofirst, the cooperative of experts mandated by the Pairi Daiza Foundation for the management of Nassonia. The general idea at Nassonia is “let nature take its course, otherwise act”. In the three main functions that we often recognize in a forest – economic, social and environmental – the request of the Walloon Government in the contract was to put the cursor as much as possible on the environmental aspect. It is in fact about giving nature back the possibility of evolving on its own: to restore but where it is already capable, let it do so.”
A first restoration had already cleared this part of the forest, which made way for the molinie. Heather should now grow and ponds will be created. ©cameriere ennio
For Stéphane Abras, reaching this stage of laissez-faire on the vast majority of the forest could take two decades. Because even if this forest belonging to the Walloon Region has already been the subject of several restoration projects and the economic aspect has always been more behind than elsewhere, there remain a lot of errors to be corrected, judges the chef of cantonment. “Resistance is the main concern here. And we have been practicing forestry here for 100 to 200 years which is perhaps no longer in keeping with the environment today. We have always favored beech and spruce, economically very interesting species but which are beginning to have their limits, given the historical diseases of the spruce, the bark beetle, accentuated by global warming… Now that these species are sick, the forest is a little sick too. So we must re-diversify this environment to obtain a more resilient forest. Previously, species such as birch, willow and mountain ash, which had no economic value, were systematically eliminated. But we need to give them more space. On an economic level, birch, on the highlands like here, is surely one of the species of the future. We can make frames, rafters in birch… There is no sector yet in Wallonia, but the Finns have one, for example. For the management of these species, the forester must be lazy. Increasingly, we must take advantage of natural regeneration, that is to say seeds that have grown in the regional soil – even local – which will therefore have greater adaptability to climate change.”
Goodbye to conifers
And contrary to what Belgians may think – including the locals! – the ridge lines of dark conifers that we all associate with the Ardennes only appeared a century or two ago, via plantations. As part of the Nassonia project, nine hectares of these coniferous stands have already been cleared and converted into diversified birch-oak groves, like this spruce area located eight hundred meters from the entrance to the forest, attacked by bark beetles and replaced by a mixture of around ten species. “We are thus restoring the environments which are typical of these Ardennes highlands. Birch and oak are the typical species of these environments,” emphasizes Stéphane Abras.
Ponds were also dug. ©cameriere ennio
At the bottom of the valley – we therefore go from 520 meters to 230 meters above sea level – the landscape has also been transformed. The Masblette, which is among the most intact rivers in Wallonia, now meanders along slopes covered with dead leaves, from which all the small beech trees have been cut down. The bigger ones will follow. “Everything had been invaded by beeches, which trivializes the environment and stifles the alder, ash, or maple that would normally grow here… There is now room for these important typical species to reseed. The animals will find a diverse forest along the watercourse corridors,” explains Gérard Jadoul. Nearly 55 hectares of alluvial forests, a priority habitat for the European Commission, have been restored. “What we are doing here in Nassonia is exactly what the new European Nature Restoration Law aims to achieve,” underlines Antoine Lebrun, director of the Pairi Daiza Foundation. In terms of the work that has been carried out, this is what the law pursues: improving the biological state, the state of conservation, of the environments that are protected. Obviously, the law does not refer to what has already been done but to what will be done in the future.”
Stéphane Abras, along the watercourse whose banks have also undergone restoration. ©cameriere ennio
Across the massif, the first inventories show that the black stork, green and red frogs, the shrike, butterflies and even bats are present. This inventory will have to be redone in the coming years in order to verify the impact of the restorations on biodiversity. The team believes that Nassonia is in any case already perfectly capable of welcoming the wolf or even the lynx, species which have returned naturally to Wallonia.
Another project: a new wood viewing area has been set up near the Mochamps car park, allowing visitors to observe deer from a distance but without disturbing biodiversity and by channeling them rather to the outskirts of the forest.
The new shelter intended for animal observation, and to better channel the public. ©cameriere ennio
Because even if tourism can be a source of income, there will be no campaign to attract tourists to Nassonia. “There will certainly be no campaign! The challenge in a forest like here is rather to frame the people who come to see nature,” says Antoine Lebrun. “The desire of the Nassonia project is not to make a second Pairi Daiza, it is to create an area where the objective of nature conservation is maximized and to allow people occasionally, in a supervised manner, to enjoy of what is being done, adds Stéphane Abras. But we don’t want to increase the number of infrastructures like these, in order to preserve this intimate forest aspect.”
In addition to tourism or traditional public subsidies linked to nature reserves or restoration, Nassonia also wants to experiment with other new sources of income, such as that suggested by the Green Deal which would consist of paying ecosystems for services rendered to the community. by their simple existence, on the model of agri-environmental measures for farmers. “It is also our role, as a pilot territory, to see what we can test,” indicates Gérard Jadoul.
Infrastructures are planned to welcome tourists but also to channel them, in order to minimally disturb biodiversity. ©cameriere ennio
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