Biodiversity

The Aigues-Mortes salt marsh has been the leading habitat for flamingos since 2016, thanks to the work of our salt workers, and can accommodate more than 15,000 of them. Hundreds of chicks are born there every year.

The reason there are so many flamingo chicks in Aigues-Mortes is that La Baleine’s industrial salt production is carried out with the utmost respect for nature. The Salins Group is committed to continuing to encourage flamingos, as well as other protected species (avocets, spoonbills, etc.), to settle and breed on the salt marsh. Another factor: for years, the saltworks’ staff have been carrying out extensive work on site in terms of land management:
• creation of artificial islets
• salt production practices that benefit these species
• management of water movements by our salt workers
• all staff play their part in terms of movement and working practices on site
• salt workers adjust their work routes and reduce their speed
• no visits to these areas: they have become a sanctuary for the birds

The Aigues-Mortes salt marsh is a key breeding site for colonial shorebirds along the French Mediterranean coast. It is also home to eight species of colonial shorebirds that breed along the French Mediterranean coast: the Black-headed Gull, the Common Gull, the Mediterranean Gull, the Sandwich Tern, the Common Tern, the Little Tern, the Arctic Tern and the Black-winged Stilt.

Across the Camargue as a whole, the Aigues-Mortes salt marshes are a very important site for two species, as they account for 51 per cent of the total number of breeding pairs of the Black-winged Stilt and 20 per cent of those of the Little Tern.