The Heart of Voh in 1990, New Caledonia, France (20°56? S ? 164°39? E).Mangrove swamps are aquatic and terrestrial tropical forests and develop on silt soil exposed to alternating tides. They are made up of various halophyte plants (capable of surviving in salt environments), predominantly mangroves, and cover nearly a quarter of tropical coasts and 15 million hectares across the globe, a half of their original area. This fragile environment is continually receding due to overexploitation of resources, agricultural and urban expansion, the development of shrimp farming, and pollution. However, mangrove swamps are indispensable to marine fauna and to the balance of coastlines, as well as to local economies. Inland, where seawater only penetrates during spring tides, vegetation sometimes gives way to bare and over-salted stretches of land called ?tanne?, such as near Voh, where nature has created a glade in the shape of a stylised heart.

**The artist: Yann Arthus-Bertrand**

Born in 1946 in Paris, Yann Arthus-Bertrand began a career in cinema as an assistant producer and as an actor. However, his passion for the animal world soon lead him first to become the director of a nature reserve in France and then to the Maasai Mara in Kenya, where he worked on his thesis, at the same time training as a hot-air balloon pilot. As a press report photographer, he has worked with magazines such as National Geographic, Géo, Life, Paris Match, and Figaro Magazine. In 1990, he completed his first documentary work combining photography and video in a project called Good Breeding. One year later, the artist and his team founded the photographic agency ?Altitude?. In 1992, Yann Arthus-Bertrand decided to begin a huge photographic project that would cover the state of the world and its inhabitants ? ?The Earth from Above?. Published in 1999, the associated book was an international success, selling over 4 million copies. In 2006, he enters in the Académie des Beaux-arts [French Academy of Fine Arts]. Since then, he has produced a number of projects aimed at increasing awareness of ecological and environmental issues, such as the well-known films Home (2009) and Planet Ocean (2012). His highly anticipated latest film Human is due to be released in September 2015.