Speakers & Moderators

Laurent Tillon found his calling for forest conservation at a young age, inspired by a tree. He joined the National Forestry Office (ONF) at the end of 1998 to inventory the wildlife of the Rambouillet forest. The storm of late 1999 swept across France and changed perceptions of forest ecosystems: what if biodiversity could play a central role in forest management? This idea became his guiding principle. In 2005, he joined the ONF’s general management, where he currently leads national biodiversity research and conservation efforts. This role allowed him to support a doctoral thesis in 2015 on the links between bats and forests for conservation purposes, a subject he has made his specialty. In 2021, he published the story of the tree that inspired his vocation in the book Être un chêne (Actes Sud). In 2023, he shared his fascination with bats in Les fantômes de la nuit (also with Actes Sud), and in early 2025, he will release the graphic novel Chroniques d’une vie à l’envers, une nuit avec les chauves-souris, co-authored with Seb Cazes.