e e t A r n o u l d
In 2019, Arnould Lefébure, oceanographer, founder of GoodPlanet Belgium with Yann Arthus Bertrand, switched from water to wine by taking over the family Domain. An ardent defender of biodiversity and in search of Excellence, he decided from the start to lead it organically and biodynamically.
As marine biologist, Arnould travels the world for his studies from the USA to China, South Korea and Japan to study aquaculture. He devotes a year to a charitable project in Bali where he is both a tutor of children and works with the great ceramicist Hester Tjebbes on what will become the famous Bali ceramic school where unmarried and disabled mothers and excluded become renowned artists. . On his return, Arnould did his military service in the Navy as an officer in the Marines Commandos where he learned efficiency in action and strengthened his team spirit. After a stint as an executive in industry, he coordinates with Sabine de Béthune, for the European Parliament, the “a gender balance” project where he works with Angela Merkel and Simone Weil. He is developing an environmental political network there. In 1994, the Quai d´Orsay asked him to intervene in negotiations related to the international agreements of the Scheldt and the Meuse which one of the Parties, the Flemish Region, refused to sign in extremis. In January 1995, thanks to his network, these were finally signed and he was appointed Secretary General of the International Scheldt Commission, which he would set up and lead until August 2019. There he built peace and peace. agreement around a shared sustainable management of water resources between France, the Belgian regions, the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg. It also helped clean up the Scheldt, a French river, flowing into Antwerp, the most polluted in Europe. Arnould is passionate about sustainable development and biodiversity is his philosophy, in this context he meets Yann Arthus Bertrand in 2007 and decides to create a GoodPlanet fund in Belgium then an NGO GoodPlanet Belgium which becomes the reference in terms of education for young people in development. sustainable. Each year it affects more than 500,000 young people, has nearly 80 employees and around a hundred projects throughout Belgium. Arnould and Isabelle, passionate about art, stage several photographic exhibitions in Viviers. In particular in 2016 in Tonnerre and Viviers they are organizing a major retrospective of Yann Arthus Bertrand with the arrival also of 2 photographers Benoit Pabis, Belgian-Polish and a Syrian, the composer Armand Amar and the director Elise Darblay. In 2019, Arnould decided to directly take over the family estate of Château de Viviers, operated for 35 years by Maison Albert Bichot. From the start, the obvious thing is to convert the estate to organic and to implement biodynamic practices to preserve biodiversity and restore life to the soil, flora and fauna.