The European Cave Protection Commission (ECPC) of the European Speleological Federation (FSE), is pleased to announce that following the evaluation of the applications received, the EuroSpeleo Protection Label 2024 has been attributed to the Comité départemental de spéléologie de l’Aude from France for their Project: Wonderful aragonite: protect, study and carefully show Balbonne cave.

Balbonne cave, discovered in 2022, is a new jewel of the Montagne Noire, a mountain located at the southern end of the Massif Central, in France. The cave offers subterranean varied landscapes and zones extremely rich in concretions. We observe many types of aragonite concretions (fir-shaped, needle-shaped, coral-shaped, massive, floors, streams, tubes) and some of them are unique.

The prize is endowed by €800.- and 200m of rope from the FSE sponsor “Korda’s”.

A summary of this protection project can be found here: https://www.eurospeleo.eu/ECPC/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/FSE-2024-Balbonne-summary-CDS-Aude-France.pdf.

Photo credits: Christophe Bes