{"id":668,"date":"2023-07-14T11:49:02","date_gmt":"2023-07-14T11:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2023arles\/?p=668"},"modified":"2025-07-11T07:24:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T07:24:12","slug":"climate-change-reaches-the-camargue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/climate-change-reaches-the-camargue\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change reaches the Camargue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Story and photos by Ana\u00efs-Ophelia Lino<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When tourists think of the Camargue and its sprawling tall grasses, shining blue seawater and picturesque white horses, few would imagine it could disappear in a couple decades. But climate scientists say its grass is becoming too salty for pasture and its beaches are receding, and in 50 years its central city, Arles, will be under water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat shocks me most is that when I arrived in 1991, there were big, large beaches,\u201d said researcher Nicole Yavercovski. \u201cToday, they\u2019ve disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Camargue is seeing radical changes due to climate change, according to researchers such as Yavercovski at the Tour du Valat, which has been studying the Camargue\u2019s flora and fauna for nearly 70 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For decades, the region has attracted tourists for its flamingos, bulls, white horses and Mediterranean beaches. In the last 30 years, climate change has had severe impacts on all of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the very long term, it’s true that all of the Camargue will be under water,\u201d said Jocelyn Champagnon, ornithologist for the Tour du Valat.\u00a0 \u201cI think nobody wants to address this question because it’s difficult to accept it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wildlife has already been affected. Birds don\u2019t need to travel as far south anymore to find warmer weather. Some birds from Switzerland that would have migrated to the Camargue stay near Paris. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the heart of the Camargue lies the Vaccar\u00e8s Pond. It\u2019s crucial for water birds but has lost the eelgrass that feeds most of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the Camargue\u2019s agriculture is being affected by low precipitation and a rapidly heating planet. According to Champagnon, sea levels will rise dramatically in the next 20 years. That means that there will be less beef <\/em>and rice production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, that is already happening. Rising temperatures, low precipitation and human interference such as irrigation and increased water vapor is causing salt to rise quickly to the top of the surface and into the soil.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAgriculture is very sensitive to the salt,\u201d Champagnon said. \u201cYou have a strong impact on the production of agriculture. So, this is already an impact of climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The shrinking beaches of the Camargue still attract many tourists.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While salt is one of the region’s most valuable exports, this is causing less production of rice and making some grass inedible for grazing animals, like the Camarguais bulls and horses. Rice farmers have to push past the salt and plant deeper, and bulls that graze in the Camargue are eating less, according to Yavercovski.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think there will be a big change in Arles\u2019 socio-economic way of life,\u201d Yavercovski said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city of Arles in the south of France is the country\u2019s biggest commune by land area, almost seven times as big as Paris\u2019 zone. Its economy depends mostly on tourism and the production of salt, rice and beef in the surrounding countryside. \u201cEveryone will be affected by climate change,\u201d Yavercovski said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yavercovski said farmers blame ecologists for wanting to regulate the use of the land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olive and hay farmer Benoit Cauvin responds that the tensions stem from the perception that ecologists have more pull with the government and greater access to land. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Situated in the Crau, just on the border of the Camargue, Cauvin\u2019s farm produces expensive Crau hay that can only grow in that region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cauvin has experienced bizarre weather. A hotter winter helps his olives grow but hurts the hay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cClimate change doesn\u2019t worry me as much, but winter is less cold now,\u201d Cauvin said. \u201cClimate change means having to adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slowly, ecologists are gathering interested parties, including farmers, duck hunters and managers of protected areas, to summarize new discoveries and collaborate on solutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are working with the farmers in order to find solutions for them to not disturb [ecology] too much and\u00a0 to understand [it],\u201d said Champagnon. \u201cBut this is really just the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Story and photos by Ana\u00efs-Ophelia Lino When tourists think of the Camargue and its sprawling tall grasses, shining<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[74,89],"class_list":["post-668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","tag-camargue","tag-climate-change"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Lino_Featured-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":727,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions\/727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}