Laetitia Allemand

Winemaker & Journalist

Laetitia Allemand, originally from the Hautes Alpes, grew up on the family estate, the Domaine Allemand in Théüs. At the age of 18, she left the mountains and vineyards to become a journalist and join the TV studios (France 5, France 3, I-télé…).

20 years later, she returns to her origins and since then has been watching over old grape varieties and the preservation of vinodiversity, while travelling the wine world to promote the beauty of terroir.

Facilitator & Time Keeper

May 12th – 13th, 2022 

Sébastien Giorgis

Architecte DPLG – Urbaniste SFU – Membre du Comité Scientifique International de l’ICOMOS – Cultural Landscapes

Sébastien Giorgis is a DPLG architect, SFU urban planner and landscape designer. He is one of the founding members of the Collectif PAP (Paysages de l’Après Pétrole) and a member of the International Scientific Council of ICOMOS IFLA-Cultural Landscapes. In 1998 he founded the NGO VOLUBILIS, a Mediterranean network for cities and landscapes.

His studio, Agence Paysages in Avignon, was conceived from the outset as a multidisciplinary team (landscape architects, architects, naturalists, urban planners, agronomists, geographers, visual artists), thus affirming his conviction that the social, cultural, spatial, technical and functional complexity of the city, landscapes and the territory calls for a transversal approach. His work has been distinguished by various national prizes and awards.

He has taught at the École Nationale Supérieure du Paysage de Versailles, and has lectured in various architecture and landscape schools. Since 2014, he is Deputy Mayor of Avignon, responsible for territorial and tourist appeal, historical heritage and major events.

The landscape – a territory, a culture, a showcase for the vineyard and a matrix for biodiversity

Thursday May 12th, 2022 – 9:20am

Prof. Dr. Ilona Leyer

Hochschule Geisenheim University

Prof. Dr. Ilona Leyer is Professor of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functions at the Institute of Applied Ecology, Hochschule Geisenheim University, Germany.

She studied biology at the Universities of Bonn and Cologne, obtaining a PhD in agricultural botany in 1996. From 2002 to 2011 she worked as an assistant and scientific collaborator in the field of conservation biology at the Department of Biology of the Philipps-Universität, Marburg.

In addition to being recognised for her excellent teaching, she was awarded in the framework of the “UN Decade of Biological Diversity”: in 2017 in the “Biological Diversity” competition for the EU project PromESSinG (Promoting Ecosystem Services in Grapes) and in 2018 in the “Biodiversity” competition for the ArnikaHessen cooperation project.

Evolution of viticultural landscapes and its influence on biodiversity

Thursday May 12th, 2022 – 10:00am

Adrien Rusch

Ecology Researcher at INRAe

Adrien Rusch is a researcher in agroecology at INRAE.

After studying agronomy and completing a thesis in agroecology, he is focusing his research on the relationships between agriculture, biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Using food web ecology and landscape ecology approaches, he is particularly interested in understanding how agricultural practices and changes in the structure of agricultural landscapes affect community structure, trophic interactions and the production of various ecosystem services (e.g. natural regulation of pests, degradation of organic matter).

He is also interested in the multifunctionality of agricultural landscapes through the analysis of landscape structures that promote synergies and limit antagonisms between biodiversity services. The objective of his work is to participate in the development and implementation of agricultural land use strategies that reconcile biodiversity preservation and economically viable agricultural activities.

Viticulture & biodiversity: chimera or reality? – The effects of landscape and viticultural practices on biodiversity and ecosystem services

Thursday May 12th, 2022 – 10:50am

Eric L’Helgoualch

Chamber of Agriculture of Vaucluse (Southern Rhone Valley)

Eric L’Helgoualch helps farmers and winegrowers to better understand their agroecosystem in order to promote its balance.

After having led the Sustainable Development Plans in Vaucluse and advised many farmers in conversion to organic farming, he became the national referent for organic viticulture for the network of chambers of agriculture, and later on in charge of the DEPHY viticulture groups for the Mediterranean arc. At the same time, he set up experiments and networks on the impact of grass strips and hedges on the natural environment (water quality, flora, fauna) and accompanied hedge establishment projects.

This background and contacts have given him recognised competence in the field of biodiversity in agriculture.

The importance of trees and hedges in the vineyards

Thursday May 12th, 2022 – 11:30am

Frédéric Chaudière

President of the AOP Ventoux (Southern Rhone Valley)

Third generation of vintners at Château Pesquié in the heart of the Ventoux AOC, Frédéric Chaudière grew up on the family estate before leaving for his studies.

After studying literature in Paris (Hypokhâgnes-Khâgnes, Licence de Philosophie and Maîtrise d’Histoire, then Sciences Po Paris), he took over from his parents at the age of 23, soon joined by his brother Alexandre. Deeply rooted in his Ventoux terroir, the management of the wine estate, which exports to about 40 countries, has also given him many opportunities to travel the world.

Since July 2020, he is the President of the AOC Ventoux. Among the many projects undertaken by the appellation, this is the first AOC to have achieved its “Raison d’Etre”.

Viticulture and biodiversity – An appellation takes up the challenge

Thursday May 12th, 2022 – 2:30pm

Jean-François Agut

Farm of Jean-François Agut

Jean-François Agut is a farmer and winegrower from Gers. Faced with the accelerating loss of organic matter in the soil and the decrease in fertility, he decided to go against what he had been taught and came to agroforestry and agroecology. He introduced plant cover in his vineyards and direct seeding in his field crops.

Viticulture and Biodiversity – Polyculture & Permaculture

Thursday May 12th, 2022 – 3:10pm

Andreas Schumann

Weingut Odinstal

Andreas Schumann is the manager of Weingut Odinstal (Pfalz, Germany) since 2004.

After his civilian service in the viticulture department of the Lebenshilfe Bad Dürkheim, he started a three-year training course at the wineries Dr. Deinhard (now Von Winning), Dr. Bürklin-Wolf and Müller-Catoir. He studied viticulture and oenology at Hochschule Geisenheim University, with a focus on organic viticulture. His research project was on biodiversity in the vineyard and his dissertation on minimising the use of copper in organic viticulture.

For some years now, in order to continue to cultivate a broad horizon and his culture of diversity, he has been working as a consultant – both for Demeter Germany and as an independent consultant.

Viticulture and biodiversity – From organic to biodynamic, a beneficial change

Thursday May 12th, 2022 – 4:00pm

Mathieu Meyer

Director of Château Galoupet

Agricultural engineer and oenologist, Matthieu Meyer completed his studies with an executive MBA at HEC in 2019.

Working in the LVMH group since 2004, he managed a rum distillery in Trinidad and Tobago, the operational part of Chandon in Australia, and then a technical design office in Epernay for the Group’s 6 Champagne Houses.

Château Galoupet was acquired by LVMH in 2019 and he took over as its director in 2020.

Viticulture and biodiversity – Getting ready for Biodiversity

Thursday May 12th, 2022 – 4:30pm

Lilian Bérillon

Nursery Lilian Bérillon

Son and grandson of nurserymen in Vaucluse, Lilian Bérillon was immersed in the world of agriculture and wine nurseries from an early age.

As a wine lover, he first studied viticulture and oenology and then continued with a BTS in Wine Trade. He completed his training with a third year of Management and Marketing in Suze-La-Rousse.

In 1998, he developed his nursery business on the already existing model: hyperproduction of plants, bartering on the Platanes market square in Carpentras, the race for profitability and volume. In 1999, he became president of the Vaucluse union of wood and vine plant producers, the leading plant producing department in France.

Over time, he became aware of serious health problems in the vineyard: wood and vine diseases, and the decline of certain vineyards without any apparent explanation. He started questionning a large number of practices and tried to transmit a qualitative vision of the plant material.

In 2003, Lilian resigned from his position as national vice-president of the union and decided to follow his convictions: to create a model that respects plant material for winegrowers who want to produce wines that express their terroirs.

Preserving the genetic diversity of grape varieties

Friday May 13th, 2022 – 09:20am

Marc Dufumier

Agroecology specialist

Marc Dufumier is an agronomist and honorary professor of comparative agriculture and agricultural development at AgroTech (Paris).

He is also a member of the scientific council of the Fondation pour la Nature et l’Homme (FNH) and was president of Fair Trade France until September 2020. Marc Dufumier has carried out numerous missions to support agricultural and rural development projects in the South.

He is the author of several books, including

– Pour une conscience terriste. Nature, cultures, agricultures. (In collaboration with L. Gervereau, Éditions Utopia, Paris; 2022).

– De la terre à l’assiette. 50 questions essentielles sur l’agriculture et l’alimentation. (Allary Editions 2020).

– Agroecology can save us. (In collaboration with O. Le Naire. Édition Actes Sud. Paris 2019).

– 50 idées reçues sur l’agriculture et l’alimentation (Allary éditions 2014)

– Hunger in the South, junk food in the North (NiL 2012)

Agroecology – A sustainable agronomic model

Friday May 13th, 2022 – 10:00am

Prof. Emmanuelle Porcher

MNHN, Deputy Director of CESCO

Prof. Emmanuelle Porcher is professor of ecology at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and director of the Centre d’Ecologie et des Sciences de la Conservation.

Her research focuses on the relationship between agriculture and biodiversity and how agricultural practices influence wildlife biodiversity, but also how this biodiversity can be useful to farmers, for example by working on pollination services or soil fauna.

Her studies are based on “classic” experimental ecology, but also on participatory science, which involves researchers and other citizens in research programmes. For example, it is in charge of the scientific development of the Observatoire Agricole de la Biodiversité (http://observatoire-agricole-biodiversite.fr/), a biodiversity monitoring system for and by farmers.

The agricultural biodiversity observatory: get to know the biodiversity in your vineyards

Friday May 13th, 2022 – 10:50am

Katharina Adler M.Sc.

Hochschule Geisenheim University

Katharina Adler M.Sc. researches and teaches at the Hochschule Geisenheim University, Institute for Landscape Planning and Nature Conservation, on bird communities in vineyard landscapes.

She studies how landscape structure and management practices affect bird communities in the German wine regions Rheingau and Rheinhessen.

Wildlife ecology: Birds and viticulture – protecting biodiversity & enhancing nature’s functions

Friday May 13th, 2022 – 11:30am

Georges Truc

Geologist & Hydrogeologist

Former geologist and hydrogeologist, teacher and researcher at the Claude-Bernard University in Lyon (1965 – 2005), Georges Truc is originally from Visan, a small wine-growing commune in the Haut Vaucluse (Enclave des Papes, Southern Rhone Valley).

Specialist in the Tertiary of the Rhone Valley, he quickly directed his interest towards evaporites (salt, gypsum, etc.) in collaboration with the Museum of Natural History in Paris and Elf-Aquitaine. Finally, it was the alteration and transformation phenomena affecting the Tertiary and Quaternary paleosols in the circum-Mediterranean area that took up most of his activity.

Passionate about wine and geosensory tasting, he can easily be described as an Oenogeologist, devoting his time to the study of the links between the subsoil, the vine and the wine.

Geology – Bedrock, terroir and living soils

Friday May 13th, 2022 – 2:30pm

Hervé Coves

Agronomist

“I am often mistaken for an idealistic sweet dreamer, which does not bother me, but I have not always perceived my life as being beautiful, it has even been very complicated.”

An agricultural engineer by training, Hervé Coves now accompanies those who want to learn about agro-ecology and permaculture. In 2014, at just over 50 years old, he became a Franciscan religious. His living signature is: “life is beautiful”.

Mycorrhizae & fungi – The secrets of a living soil

Friday May 13th, 2022 – 3:15pm

Tobias Bandel

Agricultural Engineer

Trained as an agricultural engineer at the University of Hohenheim (Germany), Tobias worked for more than 4 years as a fruit and vegetable growing and export manager with the Sekem Group (Egypt). In addition to his commercial activities, he was involved in various agro-industrial projects in cooperation with IFC/World Bank and USAID, e.g. in the development of traceability and communication tools to link small farmers to export markets.

In 2007, Tobias co-founded Soil & More International. He designs pragmatic and scientifically sound solutions for clients in the agricultural, food and financial sectors.

Putting his extensive agricultural knowledge and unorthodox but pragmatic approach at his clients’ disposal, he decided to found Soil & More Impacts in 2018, continuing the work initiated by Soil & More International.

Particular emphasis is placed on pioneering work to develop the true cost accounting (TCA) method and associated IT tools.
SMI has over 10 years of practical and global experience in the field of agriculture and food and is currently active in Africa, Asia, Central and South America and Europe.

Economy & Ecology – Biodiversity and sustainable economy

Friday May 13th, 2022 – 4:15pm