Water, as we often tend to forget, is a raw material that is indispensable for life. Water determines the equilibrium and evolution of Earth's ecosystems. The water cycle connects the infinitely large (atmospheric and climatic phenomena) to the infinitely small (micro-organisms which form the bottom of the food chain) and is accompanied by a wealth of different life forms.
For nature is like a puzzle, in which each individual piece is important and necessary for the cohesion of the whole. Water is a central element of this puzzle.

There is a region of the planet where the water cycle can be observed and measured in a fascinating way: the Kaw marsh, in French Guiana.

Water falls from the sky, then flows in streams. As it approaches sea level, the water erodes, infiltrates, nourishes, carries away… As the water passes, it triggers many phenomena. Life is made possible, in forms that are as varied as they are unexpected.

The Kaw marsh and the surrounding area are like a gigantic open-air laboratory for a number of reasons: blessed with extraordinary biological diversity, the last sanctuary of the black caiman, a paradise for the rarest birds, this wetland zone and its silted-up estuary represent an amazing interface between the Atlantic Ocean and the South American continent, an interface in which all the ingredients necessary for studying the appearance of life on earth are concentrated.

Extremely difficult if not impossible to access, the Kaw marsh zone remains an ecological mystery. Little or nothing is known about its flora and fauna and how the different life forms interact and influence each other.

New species, new mutations, new links in the evolutionary chain, physiological and behavioural adaptations to a special ecosystem… so many fascinating discoveries that the exploration of this region holds in store.

Travelling by foot on the flanks and the cliffs of Kaw mountain, by boat to the heart of the marsh, with our feet in the silt of the estuary, in the mud of caves in the lateritic soil, by helicopter above the water and the caimans, looking into bird nests in the trees, we will observe, in the company of scientists, all the forms of life that spring forth here as the water passes.

Little by little, the pieces of the puzzle will be assembled, revealing how this animal, that plant has been able to exist and survive despite the constraints imposed by the water, the terrain, the climate. In each case, there are some extraordinary tricks of adaptation to be explored and developed.