Challenges for heritage landscape management: the case of the Causses and the Cévennes

Abstract

In some Mediterranean peripheral areas, highly adapted extensive traditional agro‐pastoral systems have been in place due to the existent biophysical constrains. These systems, resulting from long historical experiences and empirical knowledge progressively incorporated by generations of farmers, have strongly contributed for the existence of outstanding resultant landscapes today. Based on society’s increasingly interest in such landscapes labels such as Unesco Heritage landscape have been developed. At the same time, farmers in these peripheral areas struggle to keep their farming incomes in a globalized liberal market scenario. In the Mediterranean agro-pastoral cultural landscape The Causses and the Cévennes (World Heritage ‘Cultural Living Landscape’ in UNESCO’s list since June 2012), the traditional systems in place are under diverse changing trends, from overgrazing to extensification, indicating that the landscapes and values recognized within them are far from secured. Landscape conservation in the new rural development policy post‐2013 is now under priority, with focus on “restoring and preserving the state of European Landscapes”. The need is there to develop tools supporting effective management of heritage landscapes. As farmers stand as the ones changing more directly landscape character, through their attitudes and practices, one first step towards more effective management of heritage landscapes is to understand: how is the concept of world heritage agro‐pastoral cultural landscape seen by farmers? As a unifying concept reinforcing agro‐pastoralism importance and highlighting its opportunities? Or as a political strategic label with little effect on their ways of managing the land? The goal of the present work is to assess the opinions of farmers and other local stakeholders in regard to heritage landscape, introducing some of the challenges within land management and landscape conservation that lay ahead.