Biotope Environnement

News

Combating light pollution to protect biodiversity

January 2024

Although street lighting is generally synonymous with progress and modernity, it has evolved into a form of excessive use. This leads to light pollution and harmful effects on biodiversity and human health.

Combating light pollution is essential, both to protect biodiversity and to reduce energy consumption. Against this backdrop, Biotope Environnement has been commissioned by the Service Public de Wallonie to help local authorities combat light pollution.

Curious to explore the concept of the black screen and light pollution? Intrigued by the initiatives of distribution network operators to improve public lighting? Interested in hearing the story of a convinced local authority? Check out this captivating video produced by Biotope Environnement for the project!

Want to find out more about the project? Visit our website: http://tramenoire.wallonie.be

 

What do these different species have in common?

November 2023

Biotope Environnement is diversifying its range of services and can now help you submit applications for exemption from the “Loi sur la Conservation de la Nature”.

If I say “blue-winged cricket”, “newts” and “bats”, do you know what these species have in common? They are all listed in Appendix II of the “Loi sur la Conservation de la Nature”, which makes them strictly protected species in Wallonia, with very specific constraints.

As part of the land development projects we work on, it is not uncommon to observe the presence of such a species on the site under study. At the end of our studies, a list of measures based on the “Avoid-Reduce-Compensate” sequence will be applied to reconcile human needs with the protection of nature. Nevertheless, any action that could harm these species or their habitats must be subject to a request for a derogation from the “Loi sur la Conservation de la Nature” from the Département de la Nature et des Forêts.

For several months now, Biotope Environnement has been diversifying its range of services, and is now able to assist its customers with requests for derogations. To be considered complete, these applications require the collection of a large amount of information to enable the authorities to give the most informed opinion possible. This means consulting databases and carrying out field surveys at the appropriate times to answer the various questions inherent in this procedure.

Photo : Aurélien Kaiser

Make way for travellers!

November 2023

Every year, the sky over Wallonia is crossed by millions of birds leaving our region for warmer climes to spend the winter period. Alone or in groups, silent or noisier, these marathon flyers can cover tens of thousands of kilometers in a few days or weeks.

From August to November, our experts monitor autumn migration to quantify the number of birds passing through and assess the importance of sites as stopover points. Indeed, there are preferred migration routes and certain sectors concentrate birds searching for food during their journey. This information makes it possible to identify potential conflicts between land development projects – particularly in the context of wind farm development – and the preservation of biodiversity.

Although some species leave us at the end of summer, the migration is really in full swing in October. Then it’s the turn of an emblematic species to begin its journey: the Sandhill Crane, whose distinctive cries delight the ears of those curious about nature.

It’s a spectacle just a stone’s throw from home, and one you’ll want to look up to see!

Bats capture for better protection

October 2023

Bats are essential to the functioning of ecosystems, yet they remain little known and often threatened. As part of its missions, Biotope Environment carries out acoustic and ecological studies aimed at highlighting the use of project sites by this fauna group.

In some cases, in order to gain a better understanding of the populations that frequent an area, captures are also carried out using nets. Captured animals are identified and described (age, sex, size, weight, etc.) before being released at their place of activity with small tags. These tags are used to track bats and discover their breeding sites. During the summer of 2023, Biotope environment was able to carry out no fewer than 20 nights of capture as part of wind farm projects.

All this data ensures that chiropterological issues are properly integrated into impact studies and helps to preserve our dear winged mammals.

Photo : Regenacterre

Agriculture & biodiversity, Biotope Environnement is embarking on the adventure!

July 2023

Since Magali, an experienced agronomist, joined the team, Biotope Environnement has been developing its activities and taking on the subject of biodiversity on farms. As part of the recovery plan, three projects are underway for the Walloon public service:

  • Assessing functional biodiversity on farms;
  • The creation of a Walloon agro-ecological reference system;
  • Studying the issue of quantitative water management in agriculture, in the context of climate change.

As key players in regional development, farmers play an important role in preserving biodiversity. By establishing and maintaining elements of the ecological network, changing farming practices and reducing the use of phytosanitary products, they can make a major contribution to preserving and promoting species diversity. The aim of these three projects is to assess functional agricultural biodiversity and the sustainability of farms, to raise awareness of these issues among the farming community and to help them put in place practices that will enable a return to a functional and resilient ecosystem.

The development of agro-ecology: a fascinating subject that is stimulating discussions and attracting everyone’s attention!

Photo : Martin Heyeres

Gems in our lawns

June 2023

The diversity of their shapes and colors makes orchids one of the most exceptional flowering plants in the Belgian flora. In addition to their aesthetic appeal, they establish complex relationships with soil fungi to ensure the germination of their seeds and with certain insects to enable their pollination. As such, they are ideal subjects for study in the fields of ecology and evolution.
Although we generally associate orchids with the remarkable biotopes of our regions, such as limestone lawns, several species can also be found close to home. This is the case, for example, of the Bee Orchid which thrives in wasteland, abandoned quarries, grassy roadside embankments and even urban parks, provided they are extensively managed.
June is the flowering season of most of our species. A perfect opportunity to learn to recognize this group!

Picture : Renaud Petry

Biodiversity, our greatest wealth

May 2023

Its beauty, its constant evolution, its fragility, its impact on our daily lives, … There are so many reasons that encourage us to protect biodiversity. At Biotope Environnement, we work with passion to combine human activity and nature protection. This is why we wish to contribute, to do our parts to help to the conscientization of the various actors who consult us. How, will you ask us? Through our inventories and studies, which demonstrate the role of each species in the biotope and provide sustainable solutions to meet the expectations of everyone.
Biodiversity is all the life that surrounds us, be it animal, plant or mineral. It is the whole of the fine interactions between the ecosystems and the biotope, it is the mechanisms inherent to each species which took thousands of years to set up. We owe it to ourselves to respect this marvelous ingenuity that inspires us every day and that will never cease to fascinate us.
On this Biodiversity Day, Biotope Environnement wanted to pay tribute to it.

Biotope Environnement

Botanical inventory

April 2023

During the summer of 2022, Biotope Environnement mapped the vegetation along all railways in the Brussels-Capital Region. During this remarkable work (more than 300 kilometres of railways verges), valuable and protected plants as well as invasive species were reported and mapped. The result is an extensive database with the ecological values and potentials of the railroad verges in Brussels. This work allows the railway manager to optimize management, to increase biodiversity, to control invasive species, and to develop verge vegetation in an ecological way, considering the local potentialities and current state.

Here we can see the bright yellow flowering shrub ‘Brem – Cytisus scoparius’ which is a source of food for insects in spring and early summer. In the center, there is a butterfly bush (Buddleja davidii), a known problematic invasive shrub in the Brussels region.

Mapping and identifying plans is helpful for the railroad manager in its ecological verge vegetation management.

Seminar

March 2023

A two-day seminar has taken place at the beginning of spring to bring together the Biotope Environnement Teams.

Via various workshops, everyone was able to get to know oneself better, define his/her deep motivations and work on transversal subjects.

Taking time at the Atelier des Cîmes in Martilly was conducive to exchanges and conviviality to work even better together!

Inter-team day

January 2023

It is in a warm and friendly atmosphere that the different teams of Biotope Environnement met in Vance at the start of the year.
Sharing of experience, discussions and relaxation were on the program!
A good time to strengthen the cohesion of a growing team.

Do you know electrofishing ?

October 2022

It’s a standard technique for studying fish communities. It can be conducted on foot in shallow rivers and streams, as it was the case here, in the Our catchment. A current is generated in the water, which, depending on the biology of the fish, attracts it toward the anode (with which we fish). The fish are caught using landing nets, identified, counted, measured, then returned to the water.

Here we were able to observe, among other species, Brown trouts, Lamprey, Common Nases, Common Daces and European bitterlings.

Mussels fishing

September 2022

These secretive members of our aquatic fauna often go unnoticed: the freshwater mussels. There are a few species in Belgium, including the very rare pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera) or the one we study a lot at Biotope, the thick mussel (Unio crassus).

Mussels are very important for the health of our rivers and our water resources because they filter between 50 and 80 liters of water per day.

Unfortunately, these species are threatened by the modification and urbanization of waterways, by some invasive species, and poor water quality.

Do you know that dragonflies start their life in aquatic environments ?

August 2022

Depending on the species, their larval stage and aquatic life last from a few weeks to a few years. During that time, they will go through up to 15 metamorphoses before they are ready to come out of the water. Their adult life, the flying stage, is very short.

Species belonging to the Gomphidae family, like the Common Clubtail or the Green-eyed Hooktail, are generally considered good indicators of river health. Our experts at “Biotope Environnement” are particularly interested in these species when it comes to river monitoring.”

Zeeland Refinery

Biodiversity in industrial areas, a utopia?

July 2022

When people talk about industrial areas, they do not immediately think about nature, protected species and biodiversity.

However, at the site of Zeeland Refinery located on the right bank of the Westerschelde, it is proven that with a focused and well-considered approach, it is possible to create or maintain a valuable piece of nature with protected animal and plant species.

Biotope guides the company in drawing up a Biodiversity Action Plan to plan, manage and monitor all past and future initiatives. In this way, biodiversity is actively integrated into the daily management of this industrial site. Rare orchids (doll orchid, dogwort…) will find a place there for a long time to come and protected birds such as spoonbills, little egrets and marsh harriers will also be able to breed there in future.

No, toads are not the males of frogs …

June 2022

Toads and frogs are two different groups of amphibian species belonging to the order Anurans that are tailless amphibians.

In our regions, they can be distinguished by a rather terrestrial lifestyle for the toads and an aquatic lifestyle for the frogs. A second order of amphibians is present in our territory, the urodeles, which are amphibians with tails such as the salamander or the newt.

However, all these amphibians have one thing in common: they overwinter, taking shelter from the cold and becoming very rare. Our experts then wait for the reproduction period to carry out field monitoring by prospecting the wetlands.

A first phase of diurnal inventory is used to detect eggs and larvae and to evaluate the quality of the habitats present. The second phase is nocturnal because the activity of the amphibians is more pronounced during this period. Our experts listen for songsters and detect adult individuals with the help of powerful lighting.

These inventories allow us to evaluate the issues related to these species and to issue recommendations for their conservation.

Escaped !

May 2022

In this period of renewal, the Biotope Environnement team celebrates its reunion in all conviviality.

On the program, a challenge accomplished with brilliance followed by an excellent meal : moments of sharing that we have sorely missed lately.

An experience that allows us to discover each other in a different light, to strengthen team cohesion and to integrate new employees: what a pleasure !

In night mode

April 2022

In the context of conservation projects and impact studies, Biotope Environnement doesn’t hesitate to go in night mode in order to protect night birds, which occupy almost all the types of habitat present in our regions.

Some night birds are confined to a single type of biotope, such as the tawny owl or the little owl, which cover the forest with their song, the barn owl wich comes to nest in the heart of our villages, or the eagle owl wich prefers to live on cliffs inaccessible to humans. Others, such as the long-eared owl, use a range of biotopes for their various activities.

Our experts visit the entire site several times at night to carry out various listening points to ensure a complete and reliable survey of the nocturnal raptors occupying the site. On the basis of these surveys, we issue relevant advice to minimise the impact of human activity or make recommendations to promote their conservation.

Communication: one of our missions !

March 2022

In the warm atmosphere of the tropical greenhouses of the University of Liège, one of our experts presented his daily life as a research officer to students questioning their professional orientation.

This was an opportunity for them to learn more about the workings of a research office and the skills needed to land a job there.

A rich and friendly exchange that allowed the students to make the link between the courses offered in the Master in Nature Conservation, the necessary complementary knowledge and the reality of the current professional world.

Exchange and awareness raising are an integral part of our mission.

We speak english; Nous parlons français ; We spreken nederlands

January 2022

Our aim is to respond to each local, national or international project in its own language. Our team already supports you in English, French or Dutch.

Our digital communication did not yet have this advantage: now it does! Our website is now in three flags and our LinkedIn publications will be in three languages.

Feel free to consult them in the language of your choice.

Pollution lumineuse

The dark side of the light

December 20211

Real awareness of the harmful effects of light pollution on human health and the environment is a fairly recent phenomenon. It is in this context that we have been working with the administration of nature and forests of Luxembourg.

Light pollution affects fauna and flora at the level of individuals, but it also has a significant impact on a wider scale on populations and ecosystems. Among other things, this pollution causes a disruption of the biological clock (day/night and seasons) of many species. It creates, for example, disruptions to their movements by creating light barriers and thus a loss of habitat or feeding areas. But also, on the contrary, this light attracts certain individuals whose consequences can sometimes be mortality. It disturbs species communities and their interactions. These cascading disturbances are likely to cause ecosystem imbalances.

The fight against light pollution in favour of biodiversity does not imply eliminating all lighting, but rather rethinking it, such as lighting only when it is necessary and when it is really necessary, or modifying the intensity of lighting or the quality of the light.

You can consult the website of the Luxembourg administration of nature and forests and find a complete leaflet on the many aspects of this pollution and recommendations to limit its effects.

Well-informed future graduates …

November 2021

Buffer zone, clipping, spatial join are well know terms to biology and geography students on the “Geographic Information System (GIS)” course at the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve.

In November, our cartographic referent met them to present the use of these tools within the Biotope Environment team.

Geomatics and its tools are indispensable, from the gathering of information to the analysis and implementation of well-designed measures.

A great moment of exchange highlighting the importance of cartography in our profession and the useful results for the implementation of action plans in favour of biodiversity!

Biotope Environment does not mess around with species conservation!

October 2021

Our experts have been called in to help protect a rare species, the sand lizard.

This is the largest of its kind in Belgium and Luxembourg and can measure between 18 and 22 cm. Being a small, cold-blooded reptile, it likes sunny, warm and humid places. From the end of September to the beginning of April, it seeks protection from cold temperatures by hiding in cavities.

To protect the individuals present on a construction site and to avoid them being crushed by machinery, it is important to move as many of them as possible before the wintering period.

To capture them, we use their weak point: heat. This can be done simply by fencing off a defined area with a 50cm high plastic film and installing 1m2 metal plates inside this area.

Looking for warmth, lizards take refuge on these plates when the sun heats up. Our experts can then catch them by hand or with a net and release them outside the defined perimeter, the barrier preventing them from returning to the work area.

When conservation rhymes with consultation!

September 2021

This September, the Luxembourg Nature and Forestry Administration has asked Biotope Environnement to run a workshop on species action plans (SAP) in urban environments. Generally speaking, these types of plans aim to promote biodiversity in towns, villages and their surroundings.

During this workshop, the various nature conservation stakeholders met with the aim of developing action plans that best meet the needs. They agreed on the species that will benefit from action plans as well as the priority measures to be implemented according to the problems frequently encountered in urban areas.

So many enriching exchanges for one objective: a practical tool to improve the capacity of urban areas to host wildlife.

Actualités_Biotope_Environnement
A refreshing mission for Biotope Environment

August 2021

The gentle warmth of the sun, the gentle lapping of the cool water and the splendour of the Ardennes valleys… Make no mistake, this is a serious mission that has been entrusted to our researchers: to carry out biological monitoring of the kayaked rivers of Wallonia.

Aboard their boats, Biotope Environnement’s botanists, ornithologists and entomologists are meticulously listing and mapping the species that indicate the good ecological quality of our waterways. In the long term, this multi-year monitoring will make it possible to better understand the possible impacts of leisure boating on our rivers and to make recommendations for the development of ever greener and more sustainable tourism.

This is an ideal working environment for our colleagues, who feel like fish in water!

Actualités_Biotope_Environnement
Busy as a bee!

July 2021

Dragonflies, butterflies, bees, grasshoppers… and many others! Insects are a discreet world for which the smallest roadside returned to nature can be the ideal living environment. In addition, they play an important role in the functioning of ecosystems by ensuring the pollination of a multitude of plants and they occupy a central place in food chains.

Biotope Environnement conducts entomofauna inventories to determine the diversity of species present on the sites and to identify their habitats. This information is invaluable in defining the actions to be taken to protect rare and endangered species, to preserve areas of concern and to select the most suitable construction site routes to reduce the impact on entomofauna.

This is a real painstaking task that makes it possible to reconcile biodiversity protection and human activities!

Do you know about chiroptera?

June 2021

More commonly known as “bats”, these small, harmless nocturnal creatures contribute to the balance of natural environments, particularly as predators in the regulation of insect populations. These nocturnal creatures are sensitive to changes in their biotope.

In the field, we carry out surveys to identify the present species, the weather conditions favourable to their activities, to study their behaviour and to map their movements.

By assisting our clients in the conservation of these species or in the implementation of mitigation measures, we reduce the impact on local bat populations and thus contribute to their preservation.

Combining human activities and natural balances is the DNA of Biotope Environnement: something that ourwinged nocturnal friends will love!

Milan_Suivid'espèces_Biotope_Environneme
The kite season is in full swing at Biotope Environnement!

May 2021

Impacted by wind farm projects, the Royal and Black Kites are entering their breeding season after returning from migration (early March to mid-May). As a company working for the conservation, management and enhancement of biodiversity through the realization of impact studies, BIOTOPE ENVIRONNEMENT travels across our regions to closely monitor the behaviour of these species.

More than ever, our researchers identify the trajectories of these birds in order to locate their nests, to study their feeding habits and to map their behaviour in the studied area.

This is the ideal time, as couples build their nests! By going back and forth to their nests, they make it easier for our experts to locate them.

We could say that BIOTOPE ENVIRONNEMENT took kites under its wings!

Agréement
Obtaining the “Natural Environment” approval in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

February 2019

Since February 2019, Biotope Environnement has the “Natural Environment” approval issued by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development.

Carte d’Evaluation Biologique
Updating of the Biological Assessment Map of the Brussels-Capital Region

Février 2019

Biotope Environnement actualise actuellement la Carte d’Evaluation Biologique de la Région Bruxelles-Capitale pour le compte de Bruxelles Environnement en partenariat avec Stratec et Equal Partners.

Salon des mandataires
Trade fair for agents

14 and 15 February 2019

Biotope Environnement was present on 14 and 15 February 2019 at the “Trade fair for agents” at the Wex in Marche-en-Famenne (Belgium).
Thanks to our numerous visitors for coming to discover our services.