Achieving Biodiversity Balance
at Martell Vineyards
To enhance biodiversity across 670 hectares of vineyards operated by Martell in Cognac, France, Pernod Ricard conducted a comprehensive study of environmental management practices and ecosystem conditions. A collaborative effort involving vineyard managers, biodiversity experts and sustainable viticulture specialists, specific measures were identified that would reinforce the land’s biodiversity while maintaining vineyard production and agronomic performance. Specifically, the study focused on transforming environmental pressures into drivers for action around restoring biomass exchanges, recreating biotopes, increasing floral diversity, reducing chemical inputs and defragmenting fauna habitats.
Through extensive field work, including flora and fauna surveys, and cartography work, including aerial photography and hydrography, a biodiversity profile was created that detailed current vineyard conditions along with the following 12 proposed measures for improvement.
- Create headlands network
- Create insect habitats
- Create chiroptera habitats
- Create typhlodromus habitats
- Choice of cultivation methods
- Grass growing in inter rows
- Reconfigure green framework
- Develop wetlands
- Develop alluvial valley
- Recover landscaped surfaces
- Amplify floristic diversity
- Extend dry calcicolous lawns
To promote heightened awareness and drive biodiversity preservation globally, Pernod Ricard shared this methodology for developing a biodiversity profile with its 1,200 wine growers, with hope that they will undertake similar measures and actions on their own vineyard plots.