The Rhineland Hunting and Wild Animals Reserve

The Rhineland Hunting and Wild Animals Reserve (RCFS) spans the two Alsatian departments. The Bas-Rhin half, with an area of 4135 hectares, is managed by the French National Office of Hunting and Wild Animals. It is an important international site for welcoming migratory water birds. A biogeographical crossroads between the Mediterranean and Scandinavia/Siberia, the Rhine is effectively a migratory corridor and a major hibernation zone, welcoming several tens of thousands of birds. In order to ensure that these birds are undisturbed, hunting is banned in this area. As another indication of the site's ecological significance, the whole of the Upper Rhine was in 2008 designated as a Franco-German Ramsar Site, a wetland with a unique natural heritage on a global level.