Elsewhere are not looking for the contact

President of the French Committee for the International Union for conservation of nature (IUCN), of the Council of strategic direction of the Foundation for biodiversity, Member of countless parks and associations, including the League for the protection of birds (LPO), as well as of the new environmental authority to assess the impact of the projects of infrastructure, Francois Letourneux, sixty-six years, said no longer to do much. Elsewhere are not looking for the contact. The summer, he joined the "Cottage", a tiny shelter mountain perched 2.450 m altitude in the Park of la Vanoise, that he rebuilt in stone with his tribe: friends, the woman and her five children. A force of only arm, since there is there electricity, running water or road, or even tree. Only the donkey to carry supplies. La Vanoise, he discovered teenager, before it is classified as a national park. Since then, it has become a true Knight of the nature, entirely dedicated to its defence.

Rural engineering, water and forest engineer, it presents as early as 1964 a memorandum on the value to give wild spaces to protect them better. An obsession which will carry it to the position of Director of the protection of nature in the Ministry of the environment for ten years and then at the head of the Conservatoire du littoral from 1992 to 2004. There, it deploys with malice and pleasure all his energy to avoid hungry developers the most beautiful beaches of France. Mission largely accomplished, since none of our maritime neighbours has failed to keep as many wild coast. The Somme bay in the North to the peninsula of Saint-Tropez, the Conservatory protects 1,000 miles of shoreline.

Combative but not dogmatic

Perched on the mountain, with ibex, species that had nearly disappeared, this Maverick, who participated in the fighting, has no regrets. Just mention the misunderstanding related to the reintroduction of bears in the Pyrenees, which crystallized in a vain fight anti and pro. Because Francois Letourneux is combative but not dogmatic. Whatever he put nature in Bell. For him, a man should rather assist it and manage. And to enumerate all degraded sites, which, after a good management, returned jewellery, such as the pointe du Raz, a time transformed into parking anarchic, down today beautifully wild. "Of course needed to create national parks to protect the most sensitive spaces as the Vanoise, rescued from lifts, and still lacks the France at least two national parks, one in forest and other wet, but now, it is common and ordinary landscapes need to consider, he said." Stop flooding the fields of pesticides, let's get out of a soft urbanization, réintroduisons nature in the city, such as in the Park du Sausset, Villepinte, in the middle of a huge industrial area and nest again today herons, a snipe, whereas 5 species of orchids have appeared. Simply because the Park is managed calmly, without abuse of chemicals. "And so Francois Letourneux deigns to leave its peaks in July to defend his friends, the"pest"at a meeting at the Ministry of the environment. His project Continue the defence of the ordinary nature. His dream See rise international group of experts on biodiversity.