F0NDATION IRIS
PRESERVING SITES AND SPECIES
UNESCO provides crucial support for biodiversity in emergencies
UNESCO thanks the Franz Weber Foundation, Arcadia, the Iris Foundation and the Norwegian government for their support to the RRF.
In 2020, many natural World Heritage sites as well as other high priority protected areas faced emergencies and challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, peaks in poaching, conflicts and climate disasters. unprecedented (for example, cyclones, forest fires, ...). Valuable time is often wasted organizing an intervention, while during this time the world's natural heritage can be irreparably damaged.
the Emergency Response Fund (RRF) , a joint initiative of the UNESCO World Heritage Center and Fauna and Flora International which provides grants in emergencies affecting biodiversity in natural World Heritage sites, quickly mobilized resources for partners in the field. With a goal of deciding claims in just 8 working days, the RRF provides rapid support in times of crisis, making it the fastest retention mechanism in the world.
Bwindi Impenetrable Forest (Uganda)
In 2020, the RRF provided $ 181,677 to 5 sites, covering nearly 1.4 million hectares:
Bwindi Impenetrable Forest (Uganda) - The park is home to almost half of the last population of endangered mountain gorillas. COVID-19 poses a threat to gorillas, given their close evolutionary relationship with humans. RRF therefore provided vital funding to the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) to save the mountain gorilla during the pandemic. Fortunately, there was no loss due to poaching or disease during the grant period. The park also experienced a baby boom last year, with 10 new gorilla births.
© Grupo en Operaciones en Selva (GOS)
Yaboti Biosphere Reserve (Argentina) - In February 2020, RRF supported the Proyecto Zorro Pitoco initiative with immediate logistical needs to tackle a dramatic increase in wildlife poaching. As a result, the local authorities have renewed their commitment to prioritize the protection of the site.
Virunga National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo) - In April 2020, a deadly armed attack left 17 dead (12 rangers, four civilians and a driver) and three seriously injured. In June, a second attack resulted in even more tragic losses. RRF provided emergency support to the Virunga Foundation to strengthen the protection of rangers in vulnerable sites and provide medical assistance to staff. Four ranger posts have been reinforced with gabion walls to increase staff safety, and a large number of the injured are now recovering.
© Virunga Foundation
Remarkable Tree Care
The IRIS Foundation supports the program called " Care for Remarkable Trees ”led by the ARBRES Association : the cities are asking the Association for both its expertise and advice and for financial aid to take care of a Tree labeled "Remarkable" by the association.
The Oak of Allouville-Bellefosse
Care work very complex and expensive for this oak reputed to be the oldest in France (1200 years old), pampered by the town of Allouville in the country of Caux.
(Loosening and protection of the soil at the foot of the tree, brushing the moss, cutting the ivy, laying and maintaining protective tiles by a dedicated carpenter: Jean-Louis Devaux)
RAF
Network for Forest Alternatives
Faced with forest management leading to an impoverishment of biodiversity and forestry know-how, the Network for Forest Alternatives (RAF) offered throughout 2020 spaces for dialogue, reflection and co-construction to manage the forest in an ecologically responsible and socially supportive manner. The year 2020 was marked by the launch of the Forêts en Vie endowment fund, which will facilitate the acquisition of forests in order, together, to keep them alive.
Aware of the erosion of the quality of forests in France, essential For both biodiversity and climate, the IRIS Foundation has been supporting the RAF association since 2018.
UNESCO Rapid Response Fund
Faced with the various threats to which the Natural Parks, UNESCO World Heritage Site, are victims, a Rapid Response Fund was set up to respond to emergencies. Requests are filtered and processed by a committee of experts brought together by Flora and Fauna International in partnership with UNESCO. This semester six NGOs have thus benefited from financial aid in response to urgent conservation issues.
The IRIS foundation is one of the financial partners of these operations.
© Shuvarthi Guha / WWF India
The tiger of the Sundarbans
Following the destruction caused by Cyclone Amphan, swift action is needed to save the lives of humans and tigers. the Emergency Response Fund (RRF) supports WWF India to restore human-tiger conflict prevention measures in the Indian part of the Sundarbans, which is home to a World Heritage site, a biosphere reserve, as well as a Ramsar site.
© M & G Therin-Weise / M & G Therin-Weise
The Jaguar of the Pantanal
Unprecedented fires break out in the Pantanal, threatening many endangered species and the valuable ecosystem. the Emergency Response Fund , a joint initiative of UNESCO and Fauna and Flora International ( FFI ) , supports firefighting activities in the Pantanal Biosphere Reserve to prevent fires from spreading to the Pantanal Conservation Area World Heritage Site.
© DR
Park Yabotí
UNESCO grants emergency funds to assist biosphere reserve threatened by poaching Argentine.
Indeed, during the past year, Yaboti, biosphere reserve by UNESCO has witnessed a dramatic increase in poaching of wildlife.
© Uganda Wildlife Authority
Mountain gorillas
As the entire world is hit hard by COVID-19, the global pandemic also threatens our close “cousins” and one of the world's most iconic endangered species: the mountain gorilla.
the Emergency Response Fund (RRF) UNESCO provided emergency support to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, to protect one of the world's last remaining mountain gorilla populations from this potentially threat deadly .
A wildlife reserve in the Vercors
While the planet is undergoing what scientists call the 6th mass extinction, less than 1% of the national territory benefits from protection "in favor" of nature (National Parks, Nature Reserves, Integral Biosphere Reserves ...) and, even in protected areas, hunting and logging are most often permitted. Destruction of habitats, reckless harvesting, absence of large predators, disturbances, impoverish and amputate entire sections of our biological diversity. It is therefore necessary to take matters in hand.
This is what ASPAS does (Association for the protection of wild animals) by acquiring natural territories. Thereby, at the outcome of a long saga to raise the necessary funds, and thanks to its tenacity, the association acquired, in December 2019, an area of 490 hectares of ancient forests, cliffs and streams, in the Vercors to give them back to wolves, eagles and deer ...
The Iris Foundation supported this project Vercors Vie Sauvage .
Emergency in the Papuan forest
On February 28 and March 4, 2018, two violent 7.5 magnitude earthquakes struck Mount Bosavi in Papua New Guinea. On April 7, a third magnitude 6.8 earthquake completed the health and ecological disaster in southern lands. The inhabitants of the forest, the 14 clans of the nomadic Kasua tribe, are in great danger. Their houses on stilts, their food gardens, everything has been destroyed. This tribe is one of the last nomadic people of the Papuan forest. They favor good manners together and favor fairness in all exchanges and between all beings of the forest. It is one of the last autonomous societies in symbiosis with the forest.
Association Art-Borescence decided to carry out a united action in five stages:
Purchase of supplies (first aid supplies, medical care, (water collectors, organic seeds, horticultural equipment, cuttings, etc.).
Delivery of supplies.
Reception and distribution of supplies by the management committee of the Kasua reserve.
Reconstruction of good manners in the forest on each clan territory.
Organization of educational workshops for children and live performance.
The Iris Foundation supported this project financially.
An "Institute of Nomads"
to rehabilitate cultural values
Tibetan nomads
This project, carried by the association Highland Initiatives-France , aims to rehabilitate the cultural values of Tibetan nomads and restore the weakened ecosystem of the Tibetan plateau faced with the influence of industrial culture, climate change and urbanization.
The challenges facing the Tibetan Plateau ecosystem are well known and multiple efforts have been undertaken over the past two decades at the local and national level. 1.6 million nomads live in the Tibetan regions of China, their way of life is changing rapidly, they now live alternating between their summer camp and their winter home. Thanks to the acquisition of new skills and the use of their ancestral knowledge, they can play an essential role in the protection of the environment of the Tibetan plateau which is subject among other things to desertification, with the disappearance of wild species, the scarcity and pollution of water resources on which 2 billion people in Asia depend.
The project is developed in three axes:
The transmission of knowledge, know-how and skills of nomadic lineages with the construction of a “nomadic institute” located in Zhiduo, Yushu prefecture, Qinghai province and its itinerant unit. This institute will offer a course combining traditional knowledge and scientific skills and will offer modules on the environment, agro-ecology, laws and regulations, entrepreneurship, etc.
Research and innovation thanks to an incubator of “model nomad camps”, which will aim to find practical solutions to combine ancestral knowledge and modernity.
A "communication platform" which will aim to facilitate economic, scientific and artistic exchanges by putting nomads in touch with each other and with government institutions, experts from academia, businesses, customers ... Thanks to this platform, nomads will also be able to diversify their sources of income by developing tourism and crafts.
It is notably carried by Marion Chaygneaud-Dupuy , inspired founder of Highland Initiative.
She is the first European to have climbed Mount Everest three times. It has implemented a model of waste management in the mountains in order to preserve the quality of the Himalayan glaciers. To do this, she initiated the Clean Everest project and led the 2016 and 2017 expeditions. She has lived between Lhassa and Chengdu for 15 years where she created Global Nomad, a responsible tourism company and Highland Initiatives, which supports social entrepreneurs in Qinghai and Sichuan.
The future of the world's high mountains
Born in the United States in 2010 to give voice to the mobilization around the human impacts on the glaciers of Denali (Alaska), the Sustainable Summits Conference passed in 2014 by Colorado then in 2016 by New Zealand and Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park.
In 2018, the fourth edition will be wanted to both part of the continuity of the founders and the renewal of the themes questioned. For three days, high mountain site managers, mountaineers, researchers, actors from the associative world and innovative companies from around the world met found in Chamonix. They shared their experiences and have proposed solutions for the future of high mountains.
The Iris Foundation financially supported this event.
Protection of lemurs
of Madagascar with IUCN
Charismatic emblems of the island-continent, we do not found lemurs only in Madagascar. Deforestation and poaching in recent years have made lemurs the most endangered group of mammals on the planet with 99% of the species - estimated at over 100 - critically endangered.
The IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Primate Specialist Group Lemur Action Plan identified 30 priority sites for conservation activities. The program SOS - Save our Lemurs aligns closely with this plane.
The Iris Foundation financially supported 4 of these projects from 2015 to 2017
Inventory of glacial lakes at risk in Nepal
A very violent earthquake struck Nepal on April 25, 2015 (7.8 on the Richter scale). It has since been followed by numerous aftershocks. Across the country, earthquakes have reactivated natural risks: avalanches, landslides, boulder falls, glacial lake ruptures ...
The Department of Hydrology and Meteorology of the Government of Nepal (DHM) asked the association Geohazards and Men to intervene urgently to estimate and prioritize the risk on 20 to 25 lakes currently considered to be at high risk of rupture and to carry out diagnostic visits.
The Iris Foundation supported this study which will take place at the end of summer 2015.
Seventh Congress
European Botanical Gardens
Jardin des plantes à Paris, intérieur de la serre
le jardin des plantes au printemps
La grande serre du jardin des plantes
Jardin des plantes à Paris, intérieur de la serre
the National Museum of Natural History of the city of Paris, whose object is scientific research, expertise, education and training in life and earth sciences, organized in Paris the Seventh Congress of European Botanical Gardens . It took place from July 6 to 10, 2015.
The Iris Foundation provided financial assistance to consolidate the organization of the congress, which aimed to protect plant biodiversity and enhance the role of Botanical Gardens in plant conservation and awareness of biodiversity preservation.
Sustainable tourism
for UNESCO World Heritage
The planning and management durable tourism is one of the most urgent challenges for the future of UNESCO World Heritage Convention .
Site managers often do not have the tools and know-how to effectively manage tourism, optimize its effects and minimize the negative impact.
In partnership with UNESCO, the Iris Foundation at financially assisted in developing the tools to change the way tourism is managed at World Heritage sites; these collaborative and evolving tools aim to propagate innovative ideas and conclusive experiences to the authorities local and national responsible for site management.
Plastic interpretations
around Villa Viardot in Bougival
In 2013 the Iris Foundation financed the artistic enhancement of the landscaped park of Villa Viardot where the Bougival Music Festival took place, organized by the Friends of Georges Bizet . Located in front of the house where Bizet composed Carmen , at the foot of the "hill of the Impressionists", this property of 4 hectares, of great landscape and cultural value, is the setting of the singer's Villa Pauline Viardot , and the Writer's Datcha Ivan Turgenev .
The three works produced by Swiss artist Andreas Kressig , echoing to safeguard the site, invited visitors to better discover the park.
A cabinet, placed in the rose garden, is exposed to bad weather, like the Villa, as if left abandoned, awaiting rescue. A low wall studded with DVDs with rainbow reflections evokes musical traces of musicians who lived and played in the Villa. Golden security barriers form a collar around the Villa and pass from a function of protecting the public to that of defending the endangered site.