HEART IN VOH, New Caledonia, France (S 20°57’ E 164°41’) Card 170x120mm with recycled envelope and biodegradable cello. Detailed caption on the reverse of the card. Card is blank for your own message.
HEART IN VOH, New Caledonia, France (S 20°57’ E 164°41’)
A mangrove swamp is an amphibious tree formation common to muddy tropical coastlines with fluctuating tides. It consists of various halophytes (plants that can develop in a saline environment) and a predominance of mangroves. These swamps are found on four continents, covering a total area of 65,000 square miles (170,000 km2), or nearly 25 percent of the world’s coastal areas. This represents only half of the original range, because these fragile swamps have been continually reduced by the over-exploitation
of resources, agricultural and urban expansion and pollution. The mangrove remains, however, as indispensable to sea fauna and to the equilibrium of the shoreline, as it is to the local economy. New Caledonia, a group of Pacific islands covering 7,000 square miles
(18,575 km2), has 80 square miles (200 km2) of fairly low (25 to 33 feet, or 8 to 10m) but very dense mangrove swamp, primarily on the west coast of the largest island, Grande Terre. At certain spots in the interior that are not reached by seawater except at high tides, vegetation gives way to bare, oversalted stretches called ‘tannes,’ such as this one near the city of Voh, where nature has carved this clearing in the form of a heart.
© Yann Arthus-Bertrand/Altitude - www.yannarthusbertrand.org - www.goodplanet.org
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