According to Tour du Valat, a research centre for the conservation of Mediterranean wetlands, 10-12,000 flamingo pairs use the marshy Etang du Fangassier in the Camargue as their annual breeding ground. However, a strike at a saltworks, Salins du Midi, has deprived them of their breeding habitat causing this rare colony of flamingos to settle on the Italian island of Sardinia, as an alternative nesting ground.

For 30 years thousands of Greater Flamingos, the only species of the bird that breeds in Europe, have nested on an artificial island in the delta of the River Rhone because of its plentiful brine shrimps and relative safety. The lagoon was created in 1969 to protect the flamingos from predators and since then their numbers increased steadily, until this year.

Since March, salt water from the Mediterranean has not been pumped into the lagoon, because staff at the local saltworks have been on a partial strike against redundancies. A solution may be in sight however, with potential new landowners promising to refill the lagoon. The saltworks, Salins du Midi, has agreed to maintain a reduced salt output, therefore employing half of its current workforce. The other half will be retrained for tourism and conservation jobs.

The company has agreed to sell 3,500 hectares (8,650 acres) of the land it owns in the Rhone delta, including the lagoon, to Conservatoire du littoral, the state body in charge of coastal conservation in France. The deputy head of its regional branch, Roger Esteve, says that negotiations with Salins du Midi and trade unions are at an advanced stage, which will allow Conservatoire du littoral to become the new owners of the lagoon from 1 January 2008.