Production © Laurent Voloch îlot studio
For its fourth year, the jury of the Prix du Patrimoine Naturel (Natural Heritage Award) has chosen Flore-Alpe, an alpine botanical garden in the canton of Valais, Switzerland, as the winner. This landscaped garden combines conservation, research and scientific outreach to provide a sensitive understanding of the environment.
The jury wanted to reward Flore-Alpe for its project to rehabilitate ecosystems typical of Alpine flora and to promote scientific and cultural outreach.
Flore-Alpe Botanical Garden © Christine Zurbriggen
Flore-Alpe is a century-old site located in Champex-Lac, between the Mont-Blanc massif and the Pays du Saint-Bernard, at an altitude of 1,500 metres. This one-hectare sloping garden was originally a private alpinum built in 1927 by Jean-Marcel Aubert, a Swiss industrialist and engineer with a passion for the mountains. It was soon opened to the public, with the aim of studying the acclimatisation of Alpine plants.
A living conservatory of 4,000 plant species, Flore-Alpe aims to become a benchmark for scientific outreach and research into the impact of global warming on the flora of the Alps, thanks to its research centre (the CAP).
Flowering rockeries of polygales and androsaces © Hakim Schepis
Research into the impact of global warming on mountain vegetation is carried out by the team at the site, but also by visitors, who are invited to use their five senses and take part in workshops and experiments, such as creative marathons, as part of a process of ‘transformative learning’.
In addition to the visitors who are welcomed every day from May to October, the garden also plays host to researchers and artists in residence, who continue their work or create works of art in the heart of the garden, enabling visitors to take a fresh look at the landscape.
© Flore-Alpe
The Prize will enable the restoration of four extremely rich ecosystems that are emblematic of the region:
- the Valais steppes, which bear witness to the end of the last great ice age;
- the rock gardens, which allow alpine vegetation to be cultivated above the forest limit;
- the messicolous flora, a companion to cereals, favoured by traditional mountain farming;
- scree slopes and moraines, populated by high-altitude vegetation adapted to this rocky environment and the extreme cold.
The garden will be introducing new interpretive tools to help visitors understand how these mountain environments were formed.
Find out more about Flore-Alpe: www.flore-alpe.ch
Reconstituted scree and linaria alpina © Brosselin
Presentation of Flore-Alpe's mediation activities. Production © Laurent Voloch îlot studio