Author, Biologist and Forest Engineer
It was while working with trees that Laurent Tillon discovered his vocation for forest conservation as a teenager. He joined the French National Forestry Office at the end of 1998 to inventory the fauna of the Rambouillet forest. The storm that swept across France in late 1999 changed perceptions of how forest ecosystems work: what if biodiversity could play a central role in forest management? This mantra became his guiding principle. He joined the ONF's senior management team in 2005 and now oversees biodiversity research and conservation initiatives on a national scale. This role enabled him to complete a PhD thesis in 2015 on the links between bats and forests from a conservation perspective, a subject he has made his speciality. In 2021, he published the story of the tree that inspired his vocation in the book Être un chêne (Being an Oak Tree), published by Actes Sud. In 2023, he shared his fascination with bats in the book Les fantômes de la nuit (Ghosts of the Night), published by the same publisher, followed in early 2025 by the graphic novel Chroniques d'une vie à l'envers, une nuit avec les chauves-souris (Chronicles of a Life Upside Down, A Night with Bats) with Seb Cazes.