To protect biodiversity

In ecology, biodiversity refers to all the species present in a given ecosystem.

In order to assess the impact of human activity on the cultivation of the vine with a view to encouraging the development of flora and fauna, the Côtes du Rhône Syndicate signed an agreement with the Museum of Natural History, which offers the protocols of the Agricultural Observatory for Biodiversity (OAB). 

The Observatory provides information and perspective allowing farmers to learn from collective experience and replicate those practices that help boost biodiversity. 

This is the meaning of the agro-environmental measures brought in July 2016 by Philippe Pellaton, then President of the Syndicat des Côtes du Rhône who, through the strategic environmental plan of the AOC Côtes du Rhône, wants to impose the drastic limitation of chemical weeding and introduce the High Environmental Value (HVE) certification.

Today, the Syndicat supports winegrowers in their agro-ecological transition, highlighting the valorization of biodiversity. In 2023, 10 local projects in favor of biodiversity, whether through its environmental recommendations, through partnerships or the dissemination of information.

The OAB proposes 5 protocols targeting 4 groups of terrestrial invertebrates and insects: earthworms, butterflies, pollinators (bees, bumblebees, wasps, ants, etc.), snails and slugs, and bats. Among these protocols, 3 are monitored by the Syndicate: earthworms, bats and solitary bees. To study these different populations, winegrowers install shelters that will facilitate their installation and therefore their counting.

For example, under the impetus of the local Syndicate of Chusclan, around ten winegrowers install nest boxes for bats and tits, other auxiliaries that love diurnal and nocturnal insects: the idea is to bring shelter where there is food!

For Gilles Chinieu, Domaine la Romance in Chusclan, as in the 70 or so estates equipped by the company Agri Nichoirs in the Rhone Valley, "the result is very encouraging because the populations of bats and tits are growing".

Within the Plan de Dieu vineyard, the study of populations of the Little Bustard, a nesting bird classified as an "endangered" species, makes it possible to make a link with the beneficial effect of the development of new cultural practices, such as intercropping or inter-row grass cover.

https://www.syndicat-cotesdurhone.com/liste-articles/favoriser-la-biodiversite 

Practices such as vitipastoralism are very much a matter of personal conviction, the belief that a healthy soil is the foundation of any sustainable winegrowing, and are founded on a relationship of trust between the winemaker and the breeder. 

This seems like a nice photo opportunity, but does it really serve a purpose? 

Allowing sheep to graze in the vineyards from september to march, after the end of the harvest and before the first buds burst open, has several benefits. The first is that the grass grows back more slowly because of the constant grazing. It also leads to enhanced biodiversity and an increase in the number of insects, a prime source of food for birds, which will regulate the populations and reduce the risk of vine diseases.

The sheep’s droppings and the mechanical burying of the grass after the sheep have left provide a first supply of organic fertilizer. The soil is also decompacted by the sheep’s trampling. Lastly, the presence of the sheep reduces the number of times a tractor has to be used to plough the soil in the vineyards, thus reducing the carbon footprint. 

So shepherds and wine growers are business partners! 

Creating not just a picture-postcard vineyard, this intelligent collaboration provides 20% of a flock of sheep’s annual food requirements and, during the period when they graze in the vineyards, this figure rises to 40%*. As far as the shepherd is concerned, we can now see why he/she has become very popular again!

On the winegrower's side, Louis Lefebvre, president of the Syndicat des Vignerons de Sabran, converted to viti-pastoralism for a decade, believes that the other virtue of this cultivation method is to conserve moisture in the soil. As for Pierre Latard, president of the Syndicat des Vignerons de Saint-Hilaire d'Ozilhan, this form of agro-pastoralism is part of his organic viticulture model and saves him, at the very least, one tractor pass dedicated to mechanical weeding.

But sheep are not the only stars of the vines. In Rochefort du Gard, for example, Château Terre Forte uses llamas to maintain hedges and woods!

On a broader scale, the Syndicat des Côtes du Rhône works to develop synergies between wine-growing and pastoral farming. In 2023, a questionnaire distributed in the vineyard and collecting 160 responses, laid the foundations for a relationship with shepherds and breeders, to ensure mutually beneficial collaboration, with the active support of CERPAM (Centre d'Études et de Réalisations Pastorales Alpes-Méditerranée).

https://www.syndicat-cotesdurhone.com/article/le-retour-du-vitipastoralisme 

Biodiversity covers all forms of life on the planet and the relationships that exist between them. At a time when it is threatened, we know that the most diverse natural spaces are those that are most resistant to disturbances, hence a strong desire to implement measures to protect fauna and flora. 

Among these measures, the creation of varied habitats, allowing to accommodate numerous species, to constitute wine ecosystems… with the key benefits for the environment, but also direct positive impacts for the vine. Indeed, biodiversity leads to better regulation of cryptogamic diseases and pests, through the intervention of the vine's auxiliaries.

This is the case, for example, of the bat, which is capable of ingesting more than a third of its weight in insects in one night, thus helping to fight against the European grapevine moth.

In the soil, maintaining a rich life, with many micro-organisms, is also helped by the presence of earthworms. The latter participate in the degradation of organic matter, aeration of the soil, drainage of water, promoting good nutrition of the vines, but monitoring their population is also a very useful bio-indicator of the state and use of the soil.

Source: https://www.syndicat-cotesdurhone.com/upload/article/file/pagesdepagesdevign945avril2024-6645ca9d1a6ea.pdf 

Agroforestry is the union of the vine and the tree to combat soil erosion, protect biodiversity, temper weather extremes and enhance the living environment.

Aesthetic and eco-friendly, agroforestry combines the imperatives of climate change with the organisation and harmonisation of living organisms. In other words, it means designing vineyards in a way that does not constrain the planting areas but rather uses their geomorphology to integrate them into an ecosystem. This therefore maintains the native flora, the habitats and nesting areas of various animal species, in good condition. The aim is to create a balance between the living world and human activity.

Planting trees to protect the vine… i wouldn’t have thought of that!

Agroof, a cooperative company specialising in the study and development of agroforestry systems since 2000, supports the growers in this process. It works with them to determine the species of trees or hedges to be planted. It addresses their concerns about the possible decrease in the vines’ yields associated, in particular, with water stress, and about whether these plantations have an impact on carbon storage to combat global warming.

The results show that there is no water competition between the trees and the vines and that agroforestry has a beneficial impact on the carbon footprint.

A 100 billion euro recovery plan is being deployed by the French government. It is based on three main themes: ecology, competitiveness and cohesion. One of its objectives is to plant 7,000 kms of hedgerows between 2021 and 2022.

Ok but what about Côtes du Rhône?

This mission is already well underway in the Côtes du Rhône region by Rhônéa, a Vignerons Engagés certified union of cooperative wine cellars, which has planted 1,200 metres of hedgerows in three years in order to restore the balance of the ecosystems.  The Cairanne appellation is similarly committed, with 20 winemakers who have already planted 400 plants, local tree species, and intend to plant 1,000 trees by 2025. The enthusiasm for agroforestry is real. Many estates in the Côtes du Rhône are already engaged in this process, such as Mas de Libian in Ardèche or Ferme des 7 Lunes, with the Drôme agroforestry association.

At the Syndicat level, a partnership has been formed with PUR and the "Ici, on sème" program, offering winegrowers who wish to do so financing for plant seedlings, supplies, as well as support in technical advice, to ensure that trees and shrubs find a place in the vineyard.

*Le Vigneron magazine March 2021 p10

The Rhône Valley is dotted with exceptional natural sites, which attract visitors but also serve as real reservoirs of biodiversity, throughout the appellation area of ​​ Côtes du Rhône and Côtes du Rhône villages. 

To the north of the appellation, from Vienne to Saint-Étienne, the Pilat Regional Natural Park brings together more than 150 natural habitats where many species shelter and carry out all or part of their biological cycle.

Further south, the Natura 2000 site of Crussol Soyons Cornas Chateaubourg aims to protect the spaces and the species that live there, so that human presence is not harmful to biodiversity.

Another Natura 2000 zone exists in the Pilat park: nearby, the winemaker Pierre-Jean Villa has for example created an experimental plot of one hectare, cultivated in agroforestry, with plant cover, but where he has also installed nest boxes, installed beehives, and where he brings in sheep to graze in winter. In addition to protecting biodiversity, it is a question of reducing inputs, but also of protecting the vines from wind and frost thanks to hedges, or of reducing vine pests thanks to the presence of their natural predators.

Other reserves and protected sites exist all along the Côtes du Rhône vineyards, such as the National Nature Reserve of Île de la Platière, halfway between Lyon and Valence, where non-marine aquatic environments and alluvial forests are preserved, the Regional Nature Reserve of Gorges de l’Ardèche, etc. 

An environmental landscape charter for the Côtes du Rhône

The landscape charter is part of a global approach to promoting green and built heritage.

It is a set of virtuous measures based on the voluntary commitment of winegrowers to cultivate better by applying sustainable cultivation practices. 

Maintaining the characteristic plant structures of the vineyard, grassy headlands (plot edges), flowery fallow land, maintained hedges or planted with oaks, jujube trees, almond trees and other endemic species. The aim is to participate in the development of biodiversity.

Launched in 2014, the Environmental Landscape Charter of the Côtes du Rhône has been signed by 98 town halls, 7 communities of communes, 6 Chambers of Agriculture, numerous elected officials and public and private organizations.

Source: Côtes du Rhône Syndicat: https://www.syndicat-cotesdurhone.com/liste-articles/charte-paysagere-environnemental