Our team

The Tour du Valat employs 80 people, who work in different departments and services inside our scientific and support teams.

The scientific team

There are 45 people in our science team, which includes researchers, engineers, and technicians, who carry out the research and management projects at the Tour du Valat on a daily basis. They work within three different departments: Species Conservation, Ecosystems Modelling, Management and Restoration, and the Mediterranean Wetlands Observatory.

Species Conservation Department

The overall objective of this department is to contribute to the conservation of animal species in Mediterranean wetlands and to help to manage the conflicts that may arise between these species and human activities.

Its goal is to contribute to:

• the conservation of threatened species;
• the management of species in conflict with human activities in terms of nuisances caused, health, and other issues;
• the management of key species for human activities such as farming and tourism.

Its conservation objectives are based above all on scientific knowledge, either through finalised research projects we conduct ourselves, or by transferring and applying knowledge produced by the scientific world at large. This Department focuses on four main areas, which correspond to very significant issues in Mediterranean wetlands today and to our current knowledge and skills:

• The population dynamics of Mediterranean wetland species in light of the pressure due to human activities;
• The interactions between species conservation and problems linked to veterinarian activities and public health;
• The interactions between poor-conservation-status Mediterranean wetland species and introduced alien species;
• The 5-, 10-, and 25-year forecasts of species distribution and their numbers, in function of modifications to landscapes, the climate, and their exploitation.

Ecosystems Modelling, Management, and Restoration Department

The overall objective of this department is to conserve biodiversity, and ecosystem functions and services, in a context marked by global changes, by means of interdisciplinary research based on our four complementary areas of inquiry: Modelling to contribute to ecological management and restoration actions with a better understanding of how ecosystems function and how they are likely to change; Restoring biodiversity and the functions of degraded ecosystems by mobilising scientific expertise to guide restoration actions and management decisions; Implementing and promoting adaptive, inter-sectoral, and sustainable management practices, which are integrated into territorial dynamics through a site-based approach; Transferring the knowledge acquired to our targets (site managers, decision-makers, scientists, and the general public) by creating the appropriate tools and in particular through the actions of the Mediterranean Lagoons Transfer Unit.

Mediterranean Wetlands Observatory Department

The Mediterranean Wetlands Observatory (MWO) is a wetlands management tool developed in the framework of the MedWet initiative and the Ramsar Convention. The MWO has two main objectives: analyse the status and trends of Mediterranean wetlands and their biodiversity, the goods and services they provide, as well as the anthropogenic environmental factors that explain these trends; promote effective decision making.

Our Support Team

In addition to those on our team of scientists, many other employees participate in the daily management of the Tour du Valat and its estate:

• The biodiversity management service;
• The infrastructure management service;
• The reception and communication service;
• The financial service;
• The IT service;
• The canteen team;
• The maintenance team.