Science & Nature Foundation

Act for research, sharing and preservation

Launched in 2018, our Foundation supports initiatives directly related to plants, around 3 areas:

- Research
- The Sharing
- Preservation

Two actions are underway: a partnership with the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle and a call for projects aimed at supporting associations.

300 years of ethnobotany revealed

Over the centuries and through expeditions, the remarkable work carried out by botanists is of exceptional wealth. The collections of the National Herbarium of the Natural History Museum, which compile 8 million specimens collected in the four corners of our planet, testify to the biodiversity of Nature and constitute a valuable library for those who want to work on the subject.

Digitizing these collections was necessary for their preservation and scientific studies conducted worldwide. It is therefore quite natural that our Foundation has decided to support the work of digitizing the ethnobotanical collections of the National Herbarium. This last project is also the most fascinating, since it is interested in this science that studies the relationship of Man with plants.

Strengthen our link with plants

Since 2020, our Science & Nature Foundation has been working to strengthen the link between humans and the living world by supporting concrete initiatives on French territory with an environmental and educational impact.

Our first call for projects, launched in the Grand Est region, mobilized more than 6,600 voters. Two emblematic projects have emerged: the "Mal-aimés" campaign led by the Fédération Connaître et Protéger la Nature, which rehabilitates plants unjustly neglected through an educational approach, and the creation of a space for urban agriculture in Strasbourg, developed by the association Les Cols Verts.

In 2022, a second call for projects, aimed at the regions of Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Pays de la Loire, made it possible to support 4 new initiatives in affinity with the values of our Foundation. Among them: MiniBigForest and its micro-forest plantations in schools, Les Compagnons du Végétal and their Arborécole project dedicated to the transmission of botanical knowledge, the Deux-Sèvres Ornithological Group for the protection of local endangered breeding species, and a collective committed to the structuring of a local plant sector.

Each of these actions reflects a common commitment: preserving biodiversity, sharing plant knowledge, and growing an ecology of the link.

Urban agriculture: promoting sustainable food

Our food is at the heart of the challenges of the ecological transition: 24% of households' carbon footprint in France comes from their food (ADEME, 2019) and only 2% of products consumed in cities are produced locally (Utopie - 2017). Faced with this observation, how to regain food sovereignty? How to enable everyone to access sustainable, quality food at a fair price?

The Science & Nature Foundation supports the Cols verts Strasbourg project, convinced that collectively we can meet these challenges by relying on urban agriculture. Their dream is to contribute to the transformation of our food system, to allow citizens – especially children - to reconnect with their diet while reducing the impact on the environment.

Concretely, they wish to create in Strasbourg an open space dedicated to urban agriculture and the food and agricultural transition. The inhabitants will be able to meet there to put their hands in the ground, participate in workshops and train themselves to be actors of change on their territory.