In 1947, Hoffmann bought an estate in the Camargue. In 1954 he established the Tour du Valat biological research station on it. The continued presence of
greater flamingo (
Phoenicopterus roseus) in France has been attributed to conservation work conducted at Tour du Valat. Hoffmann also supported breeding of
Przewalski's horse (
Equus ferus przewalskii) nearby and the reintroduction of the indigenous animals to their native Mongolia in 2004. Generations of ecologists have trained at Tour du Valat, including
John Krebs. More than 60 Ph.D.s have been awarded for research conducted at Tour du Valat by students enrolled at universities in France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Canada and the United Kingdom. From 1953 to 1996, Hoffmann was on the board of
Hoffmann-la Roche. With
Peter Scott,
Julian Huxley,
Max Nicholson and others, Hoffmann became a founder member in 1961 of the
World Wildlife Fund. He was appointed as its vice-president at the inaugural meeting and served in that role until 1988. He was made vice-president emeritus in 1998. Hoffmann helped establish the
Doñana National Park in
Andalusia in 1963. He also helped set up the national appeal in Austria in 1963. In the 1980s he served as president of the French national appeal. Hoffmann was one of the founding fathers of the
Ramsar Convention, one of the first intergovernmental treaties to protect the environment. The convention aims to conserve
wetlands: land that is permanently or periodically covered by shallow water and which typically hosts migratory birds. Some 160 countries have so far contracted to protect their wetlands under the convention, which was devised in 1971 and came into force in 1975. In 1994, Hoffmann established the MAVA Foundation, which distributes grants for nature conservation in the Mediterranean, the west coast of Africa and the Alps. Yolande Clergue's original ambition to create a Fondation Van Gogh was given new momentum by Luc Hoffmann, who established a permanent framework in 2008 called
Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles for activities designed to preserve the memory of
Vincent van Gogh in Arles and to foster
contemporary art. In 2012, The MAVA Foundation and WWF International established the Luc Hoffmann Institute to honour the conservation legacy of Luc Hoffmann. The Institute focuses on catalyzing new scientific ideas to solve this century's increasingly complex and interconnected conservation challenges. His son, André Hoffmann, is on the Institute's Advisory Board. Hoffmann also made significant contributions to nature conservation in: the
Neusiedler See in Austria; the
Hortobágy National Park in Hungary; the
Prespa region that straddles Greece, Albania and Macedonia; and the
Banc d'Arguin National Park in
Mauritania. In 2003, a major endowment in honour of Hoffmann's eightieth birthday provided for establishment of the Luc Hoffmann Chair in Field Ornithology at Oxford University's
Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology. ==Awards==