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“Natural habitats” menu: reserves and fragile shoreline habitats

User guide · updated 19.10.2026

The fragile habitats along the lakeshore: you skirt them, you don't cross them.

What this menu is for

The Navleman menu, with the “Natural habitats” tile circled.
Menu, then the “Natural habitats” tile.

The reserves and natural habitats around the lake, ordered from most to least sensitive. Turn them on before anchoring or approaching a shore: an aquatic plant bed holds the anchor poorly and shelters spawn, and a reed bed is not approached under engine.

How to use it

Open the menu

Tap Menu, bottom right, then the menu's tile. At the top: 📖 User guide for this menu (this page) and ↺ Reset maps, which switches everything off at once.

The open menu, with its list of map layers and a checkbox in front of each.
The open menu: one row per map layer.

Turn on a map layer

Tick a map layer's box to lay it over the base map; untick it to remove it. The arrow at the right of the row opens its info note: what the layer shows, its colour key, its source and what it doesn't tell you. An OFFLINE label marks a layer built into the app, which works without signal.

Why checkboxes? So that only what's useful right now goes on the map: ten layers switched on together become unreadable.

Two map layers ticked in the list; the arrow at the right of a row opens its info note.
Tick the box; the arrow on the right opens the layer's info note.

Reading the map

The menu's three offline layers: reserves to visit, the lake's nature centres and aquariums, and indicative points for the OROEM and Natura 2000 reserves. The official maps (aquatic plant beds, reed beds, gravel shores…) load online and are drawn as areas.

The Lake Geneva map with the green icons of the reserves to visit.
Reserves and natural sites to visit.

Tap a point: the pop-up

  • The name, preceded by the layer's icon.
  • Facilities — harbour name (expandable): when the place bears a harbour's name, that harbour's facilities confirmed by an official source (slipway, crane, pump-out, fuel) and the harbour master's office phone number.
  • The practical note when known: access from the beach or the nearby harbour, season, booking.
  • A row of links: the website ↗, the phone number (one tap calls) and “View on Google Maps ↗”.
  • Sources and position (expandable): where the place comes from and how its position was obtained — official address, OpenStreetMap or read off the map.
  • Set course makes it your destination in “Where to?”; Start from here, your starting point.
The pop-up for the Dranse delta nature reserve: website, sources and position, Set course and Start from here.
The pop-up for a reserve to visit.

How the data is cross-checked

The habitats (aquatic plant beds, reed beds, gravel shores, floodplain forest, river mouths, watercourses) are the official maps from CIPEL and the SABLE compilation, read live. The reserves to visit come from the app's verified files; the OROEM and Natura 2000 points in this file are only indicative — the exact boundaries are those on the official maps.

The map layers in this menu

The habitats around the lake, from most to least sensitive. Each layer has its note under its checkbox; here is what applies to all of them.

These are fragile habitats: you skirt them, you don't cross them. A federal waterbird reserve (OROEM) is governed by federal law and applies even with no buoy on the water; elsewhere, the cantonal or prefectural regulations prevail.

Sources: CIPEL for the lake habitats, Federal Office for the Environment (via geo.admin.ch) for the federal reserves.

🌿 Nature and reserves to visit works offline

Reserves, woods, islands and river mouths to visit on the lakeshore.

12 places on the map (1 Geneva, 2 La Côte, 2 Lausanne and Lavaux, 2 Riviera and Valais Chablais, 5 French shore), 11 with a website, 3 with a phone number.

Good to know. Some reserves can only be approached on foot, and navigation there is sometimes prohibited: see restricted areas.

Source: Official source for each place (its website, the municipality, the tourist office, the canton), rechecked in October 2026 and named in the pop-up; position taken from the official address (geo.admin.ch, IGN); distance to the water calculated on swissBATHY3D · October 2026

🔬 Nature centres and lake aquariums works offline

Nature centres and lake-fish aquariums to visit near the water: Espace Léman, La Libellule, Pointe à la Bise, Maison de la Rivière, Musée du Léman, Écomusée de Thonon, the Pré Curieux gardens. The pop-up gives known opening days.

7 places on the map (3 Geneva, 2 La Côte, 2 French shore), 7 with a website, 6 with a phone number, 7 with a practical note (access, season…).

Tip. Opening hours change with the seasons: the pop-up gives them when they are published; the venue's website is authoritative.

Good to know. Hours are often seasonal or reduced outside school holidays: check the venue's website before you go. Several places also appear in Museums, Parks or Nature and reserves.

Source: official source for each place (its website, the municipality, the tourist office, the Swiss network of nature centres), checked in October 2026 and named in the pop-up; position taken from the official address (geo.admin.ch, IGN); distance to the water calculated from swissBATHY3D · October 2026

🛡 OROEM and Natura 2000 reserves (approximate points) works offline

The federal waterbird reserves (OROEM) and the sectors of the Natura 2000 site “Lac Léman”. These are ZONES on the water: the point is only a marker.

7 places on the map (3 Geneva, 4 French shore), 7 with a website, 0 with a phone number, 3 with a practical note (access, season…).

Good to know. Indicative position: the exact boundary is not drawn. On the Swiss side, the “Waterbird reserves (OROEM)” layer in the Birds section shows the actual polygons.

Source: OROEM (FOEN), BirdLife Switzerland, INPN and DREAL DOCOB · October 2026

🛡 Protected natural areas

Protected natural areas around the lake.

Good to know. The boundary is drawn, not the rules: what is allowed or prohibited there depends on the type of protection; see the official record.

Source: CIPEL — International Commission for the Protection of the Waters of Lake Geneva

🌿 Aquatic plant beds

Aquatic plant beds. A weedy bottom holds the anchor poorly and shelters spawn.

Good to know. The point marks the centre of the plant bed: its extent is not drawn.

Source: CIPEL — International Commission for the Protection of the Waters of Lake Geneva

🌾 Reed beds

Reed beds, fragile and protected habitats.

Good to know. Do not enter under engine: it is a breeding area, and often a reserve.

Source: CIPEL — International Commission for the Protection of the Waters of Lake Geneva

🪨 Gravel shores

Natural gravel shores around the lake.

Good to know. The point marks the centre of the shore: its extent is not drawn, and access is not guaranteed.

Source: CIPEL — International Commission for the Protection of the Waters of Lake Geneva

🌳 Floodplain forest

Floodplain forests along the shores.

Good to know. The point marks the centre of the forest: its extent is not drawn.

Source: CIPEL — International Commission for the Protection of the Waters of Lake Geneva

🔻 River mouths

River mouths: murky water, current, and sometimes a shoal that shifts after every flood.

Good to know. The point marks the river mouth, not the extent of the shoal or of the plume of murky water.

Source: CIPEL — International Commission for the Protection of the Waters of Lake Geneva

〰️ Watercourses

Watercourses in the Lake Geneva catchment.

Good to know. The course of the watercourses, not their flow or navigability.

Source: CIPEL — International Commission for the Protection of the Waters of Lake Geneva

🌱 Natural habitats (SABLE compilation)

A compilation of natural habitats from the SABLE project.

Good to know. A compilation: accuracy and categories vary depending on the canton or département that supplied the data.

Source: CIPEL — International Commission for the Protection of the Waters of Lake Geneva

🏝 Lakeside pools (SABLE)

Lakeside pools listed by the SABLE project.

Good to know. A pool is not a public beach: opening hours and admission are not given.

Source: CIPEL — International Commission for the Protection of the Waters of Lake Geneva

What this menu tells you, and what it doesn't

What it tells you. Where the habitats recorded by CIPEL and the federal reserves are, and where to visit a nature centre.

What it doesn't tell you. The exact rules: a federal reserve (OROEM) applies even with no buoy on the water; elsewhere, the cantonal or prefectural regulations prevail.

Navleman is a navigation aid, not an official nautical document: the official chart, the storm warning lights and the authorities' instructions always take precedence.

Open the Lake Geneva map