Under Antarctica is an unprecedented expedition led by the 90° SUD association for the preservation of Antarctica and the understanding of the climatic future.
The goal is to map the ice of the Antarctic ice sheet, a true climate archive, in order to predict its contribution to sea-level rise and to support climate change modeling.
Indeed, a scientific mystery remains: did West Antarctica collapse completely 130,000 years ago, a time when temperatures on Earth were comparable to those we will experience in 2100? The answer to this question is crucial. If West Antarctica collapses, the volume of ice it contains could raise sea levels by 4 meters, thereby disrupting biodiversity and our coastlines, where 700 million people live.
To conduct this scientific investigation, glaciologist Dr. Heïdi Sevestre and explorer Matthieu Tordeur are joining forces to map the Antarctic subsoil. They will use two ground-penetrating radars on a crossing of the continent. The radars will also reveal subglacial lakes and rivers, the topography of the bedrock, as well as snow accumulation on the surface of the ice sheet.
To travel over 3,600 km, they will use an innovative and environmentally friendly mode of transport: kite-skiing.
The expedition will be carried out during the austral summer, from October 2025 to January 2026, for approximately 80 days. A documentary on this adventure and its results will be broadcast in 2026.
The donation from the Fondation Etrillard contributes to developing the expedition’s educational and pedagogical program with the Témoins Polaires association and its École des Pôles. This program aims to provide the keys to understanding the climate and the means to take action, through the wonder and scientific knowledge of the polar regions.
For three months, eight educational booklets will be shared free of charge with registrants. They will offer students from 8 years old a live tracking of the expedition. These digital notebooks, available in French and English, provide knowledge on the climate, history, geography, science, and the lives of the adventurers, and are punctuated with video conferences, images, sounds, and videos.
Since 2021, more than 50,000 young people have been made aware of the richness and fragility of polar environments through school booklets. The younger generations are thus taking over from the great explorers and scientists who have made it possible to better understand these dazzling environments. Under Antarctica and Témoins Polaires are aiming this time for 100,000 students worldwide.
Link to the presentation of the educational booklets and registration link.
Dispatch of booklet No. 1 on November 12, 2025.
Upon returning from the expedition, the explorers will offer school conferences in Switzerland in partnership with the Fondation Etrillard.
This expedition is under the high patronage of the President of the Republic and under the aegis of UNESCO.
In 2025, the École nationale supérieure de paysage (National Higher School of Landscape) of Versailles created the École supérieure de jardin (Higher School of Gardening): a unique school in France, dedicated to professionals in the art of gardening, aiming to collectively pass on and renew this living heritage.
Starting in September 2025, this school will offer a Master Gardener training program, unprecedented in the French educational landscape, of which the Etrillard Foundation is a patron.
ENS Paysage has noted that there is currently a shortage of qualified gardeners to maintain large heritage parks, particularly at an intermediate “Master Gardener” level.
This profession is not prepared for by specific academic training after the BTS (Advanced Technician’s Certificate), forcing professionals to learn on the job.
To address this gap and current ecological challenges, ENS Paysage is creating the École supérieure de jardin dedicated to training these expert profiles, whether they are students in the landscaping field or already active gardeners, through theoretical courses, practical workshops, and internships.
The Etrillard Foundation is associating itself with the revival of a profession, that of the Master Gardener, by funding a component of the educational program of this training supported by the École supérieure de jardin.
The Foundation has thus funded the organization of the inaugural trip of the first cohort of Master Gardeners, following in the footsteps of garden designer, teacher, and writer Gilles Clément, in the Creuse region in September 2025.
This five-day stay for 15 students included a masterclass with Gilles Clément, practical gardening workshops in his garden, meetings with other renowned park owners, and the creation by each student of a “Roadbook” combining drawings and notes. The goal of this trip, like the training as a whole, is to draw inspiration from the intentions and achievements of the ancients and contemporaries, through an approach that is both sensitive and technical.
Born in Chamonix in 1996, CREA Mont-Blanc is a scientific NGO whose mission is to explore the evolution of mountain biodiversity, particularly in the context of climate change. Through a participatory, committed, and sensitive approach, this alpine hub shares its knowledge with researchers, local stakeholders, and citizens to inspire them to take better action.
In 2025, the Etrillard Foundation is partnering with CREA Mont-Blanc to support the creation of an alpine ecology center: the Obs Mont-Blanc project.
This new alpine ecology center driven by CREA Mont-Blanc aims to train, educate, and raise awareness among the general public about the evolution of mountain biodiversity induced by climate change and to help local stakeholders integrate the challenges of climate change.
It will emerge on the emblematic site of the Mont-Blanc Observatory in Chamonix, the premier hotspot for the scientific observation of alpine ecosystems in Chamonix, founded in the 1880s by Joseph Vallot, one of the founding fathers of science in the Mont-Blanc massif.
Bequeathed to the State upon Joseph Vallot’s death, with the obligation to maintain the scientific vocation of the place, the Mont-Blanc Observatory successively housed the Paris Observatory, the CNRS, the Astronomy Club, and then the Center for Research on High-Altitude Ecosystems (CREA Mont-Blanc), which has occupied the premises since 2002. In 2013, when the State put it up for auction, it was the scene of an unprecedented mobilization by the people of Chamonix, researchers from all over France, the press, and anonymous supporters of CREA Mont-Blanc, which led to it being bought by the Chamonix town hall in 2015.
The latter placed the site at the disposal of CREA Mont-Blanc in March 2023 via a 25-year Emphyteutic Lease, allowing it to carry out its renovation and transformation project in order to rehabilitate the place and make it accessible to everyone.
– The construction of a new eco-designed laboratory which will be a place of work and exchange for researchers with whom CREA cooperates;
– The renovation of the Vallot chalet into an establishment open to the public (exterior insulation, framework renovation, preservation of the original interior paneling) in order to welcome teachers, students, decision-makers, mountain professionals, and company employees for training and awareness-raising;
– And the creation of an educational and scientific garden to raise public awareness of mountain ecology and the participatory scientific approach.
Following renovation and extension work on the Observatory from March 2025 to June 2025, the site is inaugurated on July 18, 2025 during an official ceremony. A weekend of festivities is organized on July 19 and 20, featuring conferences paying tribute to Joseph Vallot, round tables on current research in the massif and scientific tourism, participatory science demonstrations, and field trips.
Then, from September 2025 to June 2026, the development work on the educational and scientific garden will take place, allowing for its inauguration for the 30th anniversary of the CREA Mont-Blanc association.
The Etrillard Foundation is proud to support this project, which brings back to life a historic heritage site in order to raise public awareness of the challenges surrounding the evolution of biodiversity. This project is among its first areas of support within its new philanthropy division dedicated to the preservation of natural heritage, along with the restoration of the Canal du Midi.
An expert in alpine ecology, CREA Mont-Blanc is a pioneer in its desire to share knowledge, which is manifested in particular by the production of popularized scientific content available online (https://atlasmontblanc.org) and through interventions with varied audiences. It is also a pioneer in participatory science, which it has placed at the heart of its approach, involving citizens for more than 20 years in the collection, processing, and dissemination of scientific data via innovative collaborative formats (https://spot.creamontblanc.org).
CREA Mont-Blanc is recognized by the United Nations, as a 2017 laureate of the Momentum for Change award, for its action for biodiversity as well as for its innovative collaborations between science and society.
Since its creation in 1996, the Fondation du patrimoine (Heritage Foundation) has been working to protect built and natural heritage, two inseparable dimensions. It supports biodiversity projects throughout France, notably via its Natural Heritage and Biodiversity Program.
Its action relies on a strong territorial network, thanks to a network of regional delegations and committed volunteers. It intervenes everywhere in France to support the restoration of emblematic places, but also often forgotten small heritage sites, in cities as well as in rural areas.
For the launch of its Natural Heritage Division, the Etrillard Foundation thus wished to support projects in the South-West of France, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.
The Etrillard Foundation thus becomes one of the first patrons for three years of the NAture Fund, standing for Nouvelle-Aquitaine Territoire Uni pour Restaurer nos Ecosystèmes (Nouvelle-Aquitaine United Territory to Restore our Ecosystems).
Indeed, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region, and to respond to the growing challenges linked to the degradation of ecosystems, the Heritage Foundation and the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region have joined forces and launched the NAture Fund. This unique fund – endowed with an initial annual budget of 200,000 euros, funded equally by the Region and the Foundation – on the territory combines public and private funding and corporate philanthropy to support the preservation of natural environments and biodiversity in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It aims to place biodiversity at the heart of the strategic thinking of companies, by fostering development between the various stakeholders of the territories.
The NAture Fund, along with its partners, including the Etrillard Foundation, elects several winning projects each year following a call for applications.
The supported projects can be led by public or associative project owners, with an investment amount greater than €10,000 and located in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Eligible projects must meet specific criteria and include one of the following actions:
– Restoration or safeguarding works of natural spaces, whether developed or not (wetlands, forests, coastal environments, habitats of endangered species), having a positive and measurable impact on biodiversity.
– Specific developments allowing the improvement of biodiversity within old buildings of heritage interest (bat grilles, roosts and nesting boxes, protections, etc.).
– Land acquisitions by recognized management structures, with a previously defined conservation management project.
The first call for projects (launched in January 2025 and closed in April 2025) was a success and gathered numerous applications.
Projects eligible for the NAture Fund are selected based on their significant and measurable impact on biodiversity. They were submitted to a regional selection committee, including Miguel Perez de Guzman, General Delegate of the Etrillard Foundation, which was held on July 1, 2025 in Izon, in Gironde.
The eight winning projects of the NAture Fund will be unveiled during July 2025.
The Fondation Etrillard is partnering with Voies Navigables de France for the restoration of the Canal de Midi. Built during the Reign of King Louis XIV by Pierre-Paul Riquet to connect the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, the Canal du Midi has been on the UNESCO World Heritage of Humanity list since 1996.
For several years now, an incurable disease, coloured canker, has been decimating the plane trees along the Canal du Midi in an unstoppable fashion as it cannot be treated. Faced with the need to replace part of its landscape heritage, the Canal du Midi is currently going through a major period of change in a bid to safeguard the environmental quality of the site and maintain its status as a key cultural and tourist attraction for France.
The Fondation Etrillard’s support will make a crucial contribution to passing this outstanding heritage on to future generations:
• by reducing the environmental risks associated with its restoration and thus helping to protect a listed UNESCO World Heritage of Humanity site;
• by supporting VNF’s efforts to raise the general public’s awareness about environmental protection and the promotion of historical and cultural heritage, through such measures as exhibitions, inclusive events and campaigns putting the project in the spotlight.
Through the restoration of the Canal du Midi, the Fondation Etrillard is helping to promote and defend a more sustainable means of inland waterway transport (freight and passengers) that is driving forward the ecological transition.