- Fieldworks
- Consulting
- Management plan
Nassonia Project Coordination
- Skills Forest, strategic vision
- Completed 2018-2023
- Location Saint-Michel-Freyr, Walloon Region, Belgium
- 1684 ha: project area
- 2 main partners: the Walloon Region and the Pairi Daiza Foundation
- 80 years: duration of the project
The Nassonia Project is a joint management project involving the Pairi Daiza Foundation and the Department of Nature and Forests (DNF) of the Service Public de Wallonie (SPW), covering 1,684 hectares of the Saint-Michel state forest in the province of Luxembourg.
Faced with the global challenges of climate change and the erosion of biodiversity, Nassonia aims to reinvent new models of resilience to guarantee the future of the forest. To this end, the project is taking a long-term view, closer to the time of the forest and the natural processes that govern it: 80 years.
One of the pillars of Nassonia is to restore biodiversity and wilderness to their rightful place, to rediscover the essential and resilient forest, a source of enchantment and wonder for humankind.
EcoFirst has been commissioned by the Pairi Daiza Foundation to coordinate the Project from 2018 to 2023.
Here are some of the main actions carried out during the first years of the project:
- 1 Drafting of framework documents: Master Plan, Forest Management Plan, Nature Reserve Management Plan. These documents were fed by an Agora, made up of local citizens and stakeholders, led by the project team
- 2 Creation of 384 ha of nature reserves (RND), including 117 ha in free evolution (RNDI)
- 3 Restoration of over 200 ha of natural habitats: wet moorland, hedgerows and margins, ponds and water bodies, alluvial forests, birch-oak forests and meadows
- 4 Geolocation of all "interest" trees (AIB, dead wood, wood of economic interest) on the forest
- 5 Installation of an observatory accessible to wheelchair users, made of local wood (unloaded on horseback, sawn and assembled on site)
- 6 Creation of content and installation of 27 new informative and educational panels
- 7 Creation of a new educational walking trail
- 8 Biological, social and economic surveys and inventories
- 9 Search for alternative financing (from logging and hunting) for forest management
- 10 ...
Our expertise at the service of this project :
- Project coordination with partners and public authorities: G. Jadoul, V. Claes
- Project management (preparation of files, coordination of meetings, invitations to tender, applications for planning permission, site supervision, contacts with partners and contractors): V. Claes, O. Noel, G. Jadoul
- Field work, data collection : V. Claes, O. Noel, G. Jadoul
- Data processing and cartography: V. Claes, O. Noël
- Management of communication platforms and scientific popularization: O. Noël, V. Claes
