The Brouage marsh grasslands: a resource for livestock farming and biodiversity

The Brouage marsh (Charente-Maritime, France) is a biodiversity hotspot. These former salt marshes have a microtopography particularly favourable to a wide diversity of grassland habitats, which vary in wetness and salinity. The work carried out by INRAE on this marsh has clarified the ecology of the various grassland plant communities, their relationship with hydraulic and pastoral management practices, their fodder value, and their place in livestock systems. The diversity of available and controllable fodder resources is particularly valuable, given the area’s summer droughts. This example can inspire management methods that reconcile livestock farming and biodiversity in other wetlands