Dune revegetation

With advice from the French National Botanical Conservatory of Corsica, we are leading a rehabilitation and revegetation campaign to fight against erosion.

Faced with the site's invasion from intrusive exogenous species, these actions focus on the following two measures:

eliminating invasive species
restoring the regional flora that is perfectly suited to maintaining the dune and thus reducing the effects of erosion.

If you would like to take part in our action, below is a list of useful techniques and a description of the species present on the site (invasive species and species being replanted).

Invasive species

Carpobrotus edulis is a creeping plant with fat leaves bursting with water, triangular in shape, resembling the shape of a large claw. Introduced to the Mediterranean coastline for the beauty of its purple flowers and its hardiness, it has adapted so well that it now poses a threat to more fragile ecosystems and biodiversity.

Practically indestructible, carpobrotus edulis resists perfectly to drought and sea spray. It grows in low-grade soil, quickly developing to form a dense growth, suffocating other species of plant. Our first action is to protect certain sectors by gradually uprooting carpobrotus edulis plants so that adapted species already present can spontaneously multiply.

Adapted species

Our second measure consists in encouraging the multiplication of species adapted to suit the dune. Two techniques can be used according to the species: sowing seeds or planting cuttings.

Sowing seeds from species harvested on the site

Seeds are harvested then sown in autumn. The following species are concerned: lotus cytysoides, anthemis maritima, crucianella maritima and all species present near the beach.

Cutting

By planting cuttings, we are able to duplicate certain species of plants. This consists in cutting part of a plant and replanting it. This cutting takes root and develops, giving rise to a new plant similar to the original. The following species are concerned: medicago marina, sporobolus pungens, elytrigia juncea and achillea maritima.

These different actions help us restore local species well suited to the environment and thus gradually replace carpobrotus edulis plants.

For the backdune, we are prioritising trees and shrubs such as: juniperus phoenicea and rosmarinus officinalis.

In highly eroded sectors, we can also recover and transplant dislodged plants doomed to disappear; the most opportune period for this is in autumn, after the first rainfall.