The lungs of Paris

A UNESCO designated biosphere, Fontainbleau is a repository of treasures - natural and manmade. K. KUNHIKRISHNAN records his impressions.

IT was an early winter morning in November. As we moved to the suburbs of Paris, the countryside looked beautiful. Greenery covered the landscape and the chateaux were in the midst of woods with vast expanses of green on either side. We were moving to the historic and charming town of Fontainbleau, 50 miles southeast of Paris. It is, in fact, a part of greater Paris and there is heavy traffic on the southern motorway, which passes right through the forests.

What is more attractive is that the most beautiful, unspoilt and the largest forests in France surround the town. These provide oxygen to the city and are the real lungs of Paris. We did not realise then that we were travelling to the oldest biosphere reserve in the world, visited annually by 13 million people. Our host/guide was very eloquent about the Fontainbleau Palace and its architectural, artistic and historic marvels.

It was only in 1870 that the Yellowstone in the United States was declared a natural park. I was thrilled because, in Fontainbleau the conservation of the natural forests was due to the efforts of artists. Such efforts for conservation of nature are usually a recent activity. But as early as 1853, painters of Barbizon in France got together to create an "artistic reserve" with the intention of preserving an exceptional landscape. The forests were celebrated in the 19th Century for their picturesque rock landscapes and splendid old forests. The artists, who were fiercely aware of the forest wealth, were inspired by the landscape.

Theodore Rousseau was the first to arrive in Barbizon followed by Millet and still later by Corot, Daubigny and other pre- Impressionists. They visited these forests for motivation and parts of the artistic reserves created by them in 1853 still exist.

In December 1998, the UNESCO designated Fontainbleau as a biosphere reserve. It covers 67,370 acres and includes an uninhabited biological reserve of 3,900 acres; a buffer zone of 13,496 acres with about 100 inhabitants, and a transition area of 50,000 acres including the towns of Fontainbleau, Avon, Barbizon, Milli-la-Foret and 30 others with a population of 60,000. So, being designated as a biosphere reserve only gave it a label and provided an incentive for such efforts elsewhere.

The eco-system is a temperate broadleaf forest or woodland. The area covers temperate deciduous forests with oak, Scots pine and beech and heath lands, open rock areas and wetlands. Ongoing research and monitoring activities comprise air quality, fauna and flora, humid areas of marshlands and ponds, the impact of human activities on insects, urban planning and mobility and displacement of people, social politics and environmental management, participation of local communities and mapping of different zones of the biosphere reserve. It was in Fontainbleau that the World Conservation Union was formed in 1948.

UNESCO has a global network of biosphere reserves: areas of terrestrial or coastal ecosystems, which are internationally recognised, to promote and demonstrate a balanced relationship between people and nature. Biosphere reserves serve in the conservation of landscapes, ecosystems, species and genetic variation. They also foster economic development, which is economically and culturally sustainable. Biosphere reserves also provide logistic support in research, monitoring, training and education as related to local, regional, national, and global conservation and sustainable developmental issues.

The concept of a biosphere reserve originated from the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development and the Convention of Biological Diversity. There are now 356 Man And Biosphere (MAB) programmes in 90 countries and their area ranges from a few hundred hectares to 30 million hectares (Brazil's Malta Atlantic Biosphere Reserve). In India, the only Man And Biosphere reserve is the tropical and mixed mountain systems of the Nilgiris. The total area is 2,52,000 ha with a core area of 124,000 ha and a buffer zone of 357,400 ha. The major habitat and land cover types include tropical humid evergreen forests, mountain shola grasslands, tropical semi-evergreen forests, moist and dry deciduous forests, scrub jungle, grazing areas, afforestation areas, agro-ecosystems and urban areas.

Fontainbleau has a history of several centuries. It houses a magnificent chateau, which was fortified in the Middle Ages and dedicated to the Renaissance. Under Francois I, the chateau became an immense palace and a family home to the royalty and Napolean I. For eight centuries, the chateau of Fontainbleau was occupied by rulers from Louis le Fort to Napoleon III.

Since the 11th Century, French kings used to hunt in the forests of Fontainbleau, which secured the status of a Royal Hunt and was thus protected. Because of royal patronage, the palace became a treasure trove of French art. Its architecture, the royal chambers, paintings, china, crystal, sculptures, decor, and furniture are among the richest collections in France. It was the abundance and variety of game in the forest that first attracted the French royalty to the area.

In the 18th Century, because of its biological riches and proximity to Paris, Fontainbleau was the object of studies by naturalists Jussieu and Buffon and has ever since been a scientific observatory for flora. The forests still have a varied and natural structure, with ancient and dying trees, often full of mushrooms and mosses, and young trees reaching to the light in the gaps in the canopy. While the oaks dominated the forest in the past, the canopy is now full of beech trees.

One of the oldest oaks - called the Jupiter Oak - which survived for 450 years, is reported to have reached a height of 35 metres with a circumference of 6.8 metres. It was a typically forest grown tree with a 25 m trunk and a 17 m branch. Till it died naturally, at the close of the last century, it was saved from being cut. The policy of leaving everything to natural process has resulted in changes in the forest structure; with the oak forests being replaced by thicker canopied beech trees.

Fontainbleau is located at "biogeographical crossroads" where continental, oceanographic and Mediterranean influences converge. It covers different altitudes, and boasts a deposit of marine sand from the Tertiary period. It thus contains a great diversity of landscape - oaks, beech and pine forests, sandy moors, marshes and rock formations. The animal wealth include 6,600 species. Of the 5,700 plant species, 1,300 varieties are said to be flowers, apart from rare orchids. The forest still counts 1,200 species of deer and 300 wild boar. Though people still hunt in the forest with hounds and horns, there is a very high degree of understanding for protecting the flora and fauna. The forest itself is divided into 747 plots and maintained in such a way as to provide the finest possible trees.

In fact, there are different groups actively working to ensure the protection of the natural, cultural and historic heritage of the site.

Oaks were planted in Fontainbleau for wood production from the 16th Century. Those planted during the period of Louis the XIV and his minister Colbert around 1680 are famous. Parts of them still exist in Fontainbleau in and some other French forests like Foret de Belleme and the Foret de Troncais. The French Institute of Environmental Engineering and Management works to prove that sustainable development co-exists with respect to nature, economic development and local culture.

Fontainbleau is also one of the finest rock climbing sites in the world. Climbing started there in the 1930s. Sandstone boulders are organised in "circuits" (there are several hundred circuits graded from the easiest to the most difficult). The sandstone ridges are considered to be the result of a tropical spell during the Tertiary era when strong winds accumulated sand deposits.

The dunes subsequently solidified into a hard sandstone matrix and were then buried beneath the limestone. The hills, which are upto 144 m in length and the canopy of myriad trees, make Fontainbleau a most sought after site for rock climbing, hiking and picniking. About a couple of decades ago, visiting families picniked in the parking area, but trekkers are moving deeper into the woods. On the weekend when we visited the place, rows and rows of vehicles were parked all over the area and large numbers of visitors were enjoying themselves in the adventure park.

Apart from the palace and the forests, Fontainbleau also houses the Napoelan museum, the Chinese museum and the gardens. In the forests, we saw a large number of visitors using metal detectors and then digging the soil. They were hunting for treasure and we found an American couple unearthing an old metal coin dating back to a few centuries. To them it was a treasure. For us, the visit in itself was a treasure trove.

The writer is a former Director-General, Doordarshan.

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