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How New Caledonia is attempting to save its native plant life
Brut America
Follow
3/25/2025
This is the story of an island which is trying to save its threatened plant life…
Brut nature followed the @WWFNC through the archipelago’s forests and scrubland. Here’s what they are doing to protect this exceptional flora.
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Travel
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00:00
The flower in New Caledonia is really exceptional because of its endemicity.
00:21
There are 80% of the species that are endemic to New Caledonia,
00:24
which means that in their natural state, they can only be found in New Caledonia.
00:28
So if they disappear from New Caledonia, they disappear from the planet
00:31
and the biodiversity heritage of humanity.
00:35
There must be one over there.
00:40
The first one is this one.
00:42
It's a small Tristaniopsis polyandra.
00:45
This one is beautiful, look.
00:48
It's dense, it has a nice leaf pattern.
00:50
It makes these little leaves, they're quite funny.
00:53
There are still 500 individuals of this species.
00:56
I don't think 500 is a lot, but from the moment you start counting the feet of a species,
01:01
that's when there's a problem.
01:17
When I came back here after the fire, it was a show of desolation.
01:22
Here you can see greenery.
01:24
Most of it was gone, it was a black landscape.
01:30
The fire ate up almost all of the vegetation.
01:34
In these machines, 9 plants out of 10 are endemic.
01:38
So we're in front of a cemetery of forests,
01:41
a forest unique to the world,
01:43
which is definitely leaving us in this valley.
01:47
This flower is not only threatened by fires,
01:50
but it has been for more than a century, for example, by mining.
01:54
We have very important nickel deposits,
01:57
and you have to go looking for this nickel by destroying the vegetation.
02:01
And then you have biological invasions,
02:03
that is, the introduction of animal and plant species.
02:06
These species take up the space,
02:09
disrupt the ecological niche of the Caledonian species.
02:14
So if you add mining, fire and biological invasions,
02:18
animal and plant,
02:20
you have the trio of heads
02:22
that participate in the destruction of a biodiversity unique to the world.
02:36
Here we are going to join a volunteer family
02:40
who has been participating for two months
02:43
to save the last feet of Pichonia,
02:46
the endangered shrub that had been completely burned.
03:00
We filled the buckets at the river
03:03
and we helped Mom to immerse the straw in the water
03:06
to make it wetter.
03:11
Do you think it could be Pichonia?
03:14
Yes, according to the photos that Edige sent you,
03:17
for me there is no doubt that it is Pichonia.
03:20
So it remains to be seen how many plants have survived.
03:23
Yes, that's it.
03:26
PICHONIA
03:38
You see, two weeks ago there was nothing left.
03:42
And then we discover that it grew again.
03:45
Great.
03:46
It was able to grow like that.
03:48
Yes, there was really nothing at all.
03:50
Superb.
03:51
It will be its ashes.
03:53
We have five plants, possibly,
03:56
that have taken over.
03:58
Five plants on the planet for this species.
04:01
The emotion is huge.
04:03
It's a beautiful day, it's a day of hope,
04:06
but also of responsibility.
04:09
DUMBEA
04:22
So here we are on the site of the Dumbea.
04:24
It is a site that has been subjected to significant pressure
04:27
even today.
04:28
The mine, in the past.
04:30
The fires, until quite recently.
04:32
And which is also ecologically super important
04:35
since it is located on a kind of green corridor
04:37
that goes up the Dumbea Valley.
04:42
So here we are on a hill.
04:44
We did restoration work that we started in 2015.
04:47
And we will see if our plantations,
04:49
since that time, have succeeded.
04:51
So if we have dead plants, if we have living plants.
04:54
And to see if it's a success or not.
04:57
The plants we planted were barely 10 cm.
05:00
And here they are, three and a half years later,
05:02
almost four years, they are 80 cm.
05:05
And above all, super important, they have fruits.
05:11
So the follow-up on the sheets is to indicate the size,
05:14
the size of the plant.
05:16
Indicate the state of the foliage.
05:18
Normally, if they are dead, it has been a while
05:20
that they are, and those who have survived,
05:22
we hope they hang on and are in good shape.
05:24
So size, state of the foliage.
05:26
If there are flowers, yes, no.
05:28
If there are fruits, yes, no.
05:31
Yes, this one is beautiful.
05:33
This one is called ...
05:35
Magnificent, magnificent.
05:37
What's his little name?
05:39
Gymnosthoma.
05:41
So this one is already ready to go seed.
05:43
There are a few at the feet.
05:45
So that's a success.
05:47
Because the seeds are going to leave,
05:49
the birds are going to eat them,
05:51
they are going to go down with the rain.
05:53
And we're going to make a forest.
05:56
In fact, on these very poor soils,
05:58
the trees really grow very,
06:00
very slowly for a tropical environment.
06:02
So with a little luck,
06:04
in 50 to 100 years,
06:06
we will have a really dense, grassy cover.
06:08
And on the other hand, to find a real
06:10
original forest environment,
06:12
there we go on durations that are
06:14
rather 500 years for the time
06:16
that the species return, that the soils
06:18
are reconstituted. So it's really
06:20
scales of time that are excessively slow.
06:22
That's why it's really important
06:24
to protect the forests we have today,
06:26
because the time it takes to rebuild them
06:28
far exceeds us.
06:36
Preserving this flora,
06:38
it's going to go through more
06:40
means of fighting
06:42
against fires.
06:44
It's going to go through the creation
06:46
of new protected areas.
06:48
It's going to go through the ban
06:50
of exploiting the ore
06:52
of some massifs, because the biodiversity
06:54
is too important.
06:56
It's going to go through the development
06:58
of large environmental education programs,
07:00
not in one, ten or twenty schools,
07:02
but in all the Caledonian schools.
07:18
Hello everyone!
07:20
Thank you to you and your teachers
07:22
for being here.
07:24
I'm going to show you a project
07:26
that we are leading with the WWF.
07:28
It's a project to save endemic species.
07:30
Do any of you know what endemic means?
07:32
It's the species that live in the same place.
07:34
Yes, that's exactly it.
07:36
The fact that it's an island,
07:38
there is very little exchange,
07:40
so there are a lot of species
07:42
that are developed on the island
07:44
and that really only exist on this island.
07:46
I wanted to show you species
07:48
that are micro-endemic to Païta.
07:50
For example, this one
07:52
is the Ocrosia inventorum.
07:54
As you will see,
07:56
they all have names that are not possible.
07:58
The Ocrosia inventorum
08:00
only remains at the pointe-ma.
08:02
I don't know if you can see the pointe-ma
08:04
at the seaside.
08:06
We will have a hard time naming this one
08:08
because even the scientists
08:10
have not yet given it a name
08:12
because they have not yet been able
08:14
to identify what kind of species it is.
08:16
It's a small tree, when it's young
08:18
It was a small example.
08:20
We will see each other again soon
08:22
because there will be
08:24
seedling projects,
08:26
projects to try to find seeds,
08:28
to grow these trees
08:30
and to plant them in the field behind.
08:32
That way, all together,
08:34
there are 48 species that are threatened with extinction.
08:36
We could already save four.
08:38
It's still huge.
08:40
That means that with just 10 school establishments,
08:42
so high school, high school,
08:44
we can save almost all species
08:46
of dry forest.
08:48
It's our turn to play.
08:50
For that, we need you.
08:52
Thank you very much.
08:54
It touched me.
08:56
I would like the plants
08:58
to stay alive.
09:02
I planted lots of plants
09:04
for the new generation.
09:10
In fact, these citizens
09:12
can also, if they are aware of this wealth,
09:14
come and participate in conservation.
09:16
It is the observation that everyone can participate
09:18
and that if we take one or more species
09:20
under our wing,
09:22
we can save them from extinction.
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