31 Direction of Sustainable Development of the South Province Territories I Strolling along the waterways Ramsar area Bridges: Germain (G) Perignon (P) Month of May (M) The Great Kauri Devil’s Horn Great Waterfall Blue River Provincial Park The Locomobile The Mule Drivers’ Refuge The Park House Protected area Yaté Lake Rock’s Peak Buse Peak Mont-Dore Mouirange Peak The Two Nipples 1233 780 Gué 165 643 878 776 1004 Sunshine Mine Gwé Daru Gwé Buru Poco Mié Dumbéa River Plum Bay The Pirogues Bay Ué Bay La Coulée River Pirogues River Sources Mountain Mount Koghis Mount Pouédihi The Blue River Provincial Park (BRPP) The Drowned Forest Bon secours The Blue River The White River The Month of May River G M K R K D D C C L R L P Created in 1980, in the heart of the Great South’s massif, the Park extends over 22,000 ha and includes the nature reserves of High Pourina and High Yaté. Varied atmospheres and environments It contains varied plant formations (mining shrub, dense forests and wetlands) and is home to unique species in the world. Of great variety, the forest is made up of kauri trees (Agathis lanceolata) and araucarias (Araucaria bernieri) which sit alongside endemic palm trees (Cyphophoenix fulcita) as well as spectacular tree ferns (Cyathea vieillardi). Omnipresent water, shaping landscapes The White and Blue Rivers are the two main rivers of the BRPP. Permanent, they supply the water reservoir of the artificial lake of Yaté. Along these waterways, riparian forests develop which have the advantage of not depending on rainfall and which cross all environments. Located essentially on the outskirts of these open freshwater areas, the Park’s marshes have vegetation adapted to more or less permanent waterlogging, forming a transition with the shrub on the slopes. Proud of the conservation of an emblematic bird Most New Caledonian land birds are found there. The BRPP is home to the largest population of wild kagu birds. Specimens bred in captivity, at the Noumea Provincial Zoological and Forestry Park, have been successfully reintroduced into the park. Unfit to fly and therefore subject to predators (dogs, cats, pigs, etc.), they reproduce little (a single egg per year), hence their rarity and their protected status, a program led by the South Province. Due to deforestation, caused by the exploitation of nickel mines, humans have restricted its living areas and represented a certain pressure for these endemic Rhynochetos jubatus. A multifaceted park, an example of biodiversity Why can’t the kagu fly? It would only lack powerful pectoral muscles, atrophied over time because it used to live in an environment without predators and find its food in the ground, so flight was no longer vital to it. Rainforest At the Grand Cascade The Blue River The Perignon Bridge The Blue River
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