VIDÉOS
DOCUMENTAIRES ET REPORTAGES
PRODUITES PAR NOTRE AGENCE DE PRODUCTION VIDÉO SUR l'OCCITANIE, TOULOUSE, MURET, MAUZAC

Chaque pays dispose d'un office national des forêts. Que font-ils ? Ils regardent les arbres pousser ? Aussi, oui, mais le travail est de manière plus difficile. Les parties prenantes sont nombreuses en montagne et, comme les offices nationaux des forêts gèrent les espaces qui leur sont attribués, ils doivent trouver en permanence des compromis entre la conservation de la biodiversité, les intérêts des agriculteurs, des pêcheurs et des touristes. Ce n'est pas une tâche facile. L'ONF gère les paysages, est responsable des sites Natura 2000, sites protégés appartenant à un réseau européen, intervient en matière de chasse, de tourisme et de pastoralisme. L'ONF est également responsable de l'état des masses d'eau de toute nature sur les territoires qu'il gère. Dans notre 7ème épisode de la série, je m'entretiens avec Patrick, un agent de l'Office National Français (ONF), au pied du majestueux Mont Vallier, le plus haut sommet des Pyrénées Ariegoise (France). Nous parlons des rôles de l'ONF dans la gestion des écosystèmes aquatiques et visitons plusieurs lacs, le Prat Matau, l'Etang Arreau, l'Estagnon, et l'Etang de Lers, montrant les problèmes qui doivent être résolus à l'avenir.Découvrez les difficultés, les enjeux et les manières de protéger les lacs et leur biodiversité.

Mountains as sentinels of change Mountains have these beautiful reliefs, rapid ecological changes along an altitudinal gradient providing living space to numerous species, but are restricted by their mountain tops. They are high rising islands in a sea of lowlands. Mountains are very fragile environments and are among the regions that are most sensitive to climate change and to the impacts of human activities. Why? Climate change is a worldwide threat, but its impact on mountains is particularly strong and troubling. High elevation areas tend to experience intensified climate-change induced warming and weather extremes. As with high latitudes (our poles), where ice-melt is way more rapid than predicted, the rate of warming is also amplified with elevation. That means that high mountains are experiencing more rapid changes in temperature and much higher variations in daily temperatures as compared to lowland regions. Glaciers are melting more and more quickly, snow cover is reduced and highly variable between years. Further, heavy rain events, creating torrents and floods, and periods of no rain, drying out mountain landscapes, have been observed to be more and more common frequent. All this has important implications for nature, for wildlife and for us. High-altitude areas around the world share many characteristic and common features. All of them have in common that, while being considered an extreme environment with short vegetation times, they harbor an important amount of different species, adapted to such a harsh environment. These species form unique communities and unique ecosystems, and especially alpine lakes are a source of life. They are the basis of the functioning of ecosystem, processes such as nutrient cycling, CO2 sequestration, digestion of dead organic matter and many more. Climate change puts enormous stress on those species, leading to deep changes in those biological communities due to changes in abundance of species, loss of species, and range changes of species. Interactions between the species, interactions between species and the environment drive the functioning of ecosystems. The changes we see due to climate change will also profoundly alter ecosystem functioning, and e.g. clean drinking water may become a rare good in the future. Mountains are sentinels of change. Changes in the mountains will lead to the loss of essential ecosystem services, which poses risks for the well-being of all of us. Mountains, despite their might, are fragile environments, suffering from human-induced changes. We need to treat mountains with respect to save our future. (Images and drone flight realized with the derogatory authorization of the Pyrenees National Park.)

Mountains and their forests play a major role in the preservation of biodiversity and provide important ecosystem services such as climate regulation. Major threats to mountains include climate change, land use needs, and economic and population growth. These pressures impact food and water security, the availability of other natural resources, and the very survival of species. PEOPLE: Humans have exploited the timber, mining and pasturage resources of mountain environments for millennia. These activities and others have impacted mountain ecosystems to varying degrees. Today, the rapid flux of people and resources into and out of mountains compounds the challenges facing mountains. POLLUTION: Human activities, even those carried out far from mountains, pollute remote mountain areas at high altitudes. Potentially harmful chemicals can be transported to mountains by orographic effects and may enrich in lake sediments and peat bogs. A range of climate variables, such as rainfall, snowfall, length of growth season, and wind patterns may play an important but little understood role in distribution and re-distribution of pollutants. Temperature dependent partitioning between air and atmospheric particles, snow surface, or water droplets determine dry and wet deposition rates that may lead to a fractionation and preferential deposition of different compounds at different altitudes. The pollution of mountain freshwater with chemical compounds - a key challenge humanity is facing, is therefore closely linked to climate change and climate extremes. Climate extremes play a key role in the re-distribution of chemical pollutants and are assumed to enhance release of pollutants stored in ice, soils or sediments through e.g. flood events. In addition, local activities, such as mining and pastoralism, pollute mountains more directly by releasing heavy metals of insecticides. PATHOGENS: Food webs in destabilized mountain ecosystems can be strongly altered. For example, zooplankton communities are sensitive to pollution and to fish introductions. In changed communities, pathogens may increase in abundance. Such changes can result in the introduction of, and increased vulnerability to, pathogens affecting both humans and wildlife. The pressures and threats to our mountains are manifold. Exploitation, Pastoralism, Tourism, Fish stocking and Pollution. And as a result from all the threats: Eutrophication – an increased availability of nutrients. Protecting mountain ecosystems is protecting our future. (Images and drone flight realized with the derogatory authorization of the Pyrenees National Park.)

Nous sommes allés à Cauteret et dans les dernières forêts anciennes pour enregistrer les rushes du film "Le vieil arbre". Ce n'est pas qu'un film comme celui-là se fait en quelques clics et boum, c'est fait. Nous avons affronté de fortes pluies, des arbres tombés, grimpé des montagnes escarpées, dormi dans un refuge si moderne qu'il a détruit notre vision nocturne, et tout cela pour vous fournir ce film. C'était notre plaisir ! We went to Cauteret and the last remaining old growth forests to record rushes for the film "The Old Tree". It is not that a film like that is done with a few simple clicks and boom, done. We went through heavy rain, fallen trees, climbed up steep mountains, slept in a refuge so modern that it destroyed our night sight, and all that for providing you with that film. It was our pleasure!

I am a mountain lake. I am important for you and all life. However, i am unwell. Let me show you why.

Five times price-winning film (Rome, Berlin, Barcelona, Toulouse, and Lisbon). I am a tree, a very old tree. I store carbon since hundreds of years. It is in my roots, in my wood and in my leaves. Carbon - the essential element of life. I use the sun to recover the energy I need. The energy I needed to become this majestic The energy I need to be alive The energy I need to feed, host and attract life. I am teeming with life, below ground and above ground Communities of many different animal and plant species call me home It takes centuries for these communities to establish And I am glad to host them I know you and your species for quite a while now You wandered in my shadows You have used my dead wood to heat you You climbed up my stem to have a better look around the magnificent landscape I grow in We lived together, harmonic and peaceful Then, I heard the screams of my cousins when they did fall by your hand One, two, ten, hundreds. I felt the shutter when they hit the ground You tracked them out of my woods They were slowly dying, trying out. Many species lost their home I was spared. My luck? I grow at a place you can not easily reach with your machines Quite recently, at least for me, I started to suffer from something else. Heat, floods, droughts, more droughts, more heat, more floods. I feel dizzy I feel feverish I feel sick Not sure, how long I will keep on standing How long I will be home for those many different species calling me home When I fall, and I will, I feel it, despair will reign in the woods And you? You may only be aware when plenty of us are gone. Then it is too late Our kind takes half a millennium to regrow You might be long gone when a cousin grew back to my majestic size When I perish, you will perish. We are both part of the same system Just a thought: Stop killing me... ... for real Images and overflight in drone realized with the derogatory authorization of the Pyrenees National Park