Mobilisation d’acteurs et significations différenciées des politiques publiques paysagères. L’exemple du Parc Régional des Monts d’Ardèche

Topics

• Policies and instruments
• Regional value added, Governance capacity, Protected areas

Abstract

This article sais that in France, it is not possible to talk about specific public policies regarding landscape ; it is better to talk about dispositives. From the example of Parc Naturel Régional des Monts d’Ardèche, the authors propose an analysis of the processes at work in the implementation of the dispositives. They underligne four aims to do this valuation : - different frameworks of action regarding landscape : which kinds of public policies for landscape exist in a Parc Naturel Régional (PNR) ? - the way for the public policies to apprehend stakeholders : what do the public policies’ perception show about valuation ? - the methods of appropriation of landscape : how does the ways of appropriation show different kind of mobilisation of public policies ? - the conditions for the emergence of a territorial project in the PNR charter : how is the landscape mobilized in this territorial project ? Which policies ? The authors underline a superposition, an interaction between a lot of processes only on one space. However several spaces concentrate more processes. In the framework of the public policies for a long term conservation, three modes of mobilisation of lanscape are identified which do a « territorialisation » more or less visible : - when policies have an important institutional aspect based on limits, rules, a property of landscape elements ; - when dispositives are more interventionist (maintenance of activities in underprivileged spaces), management is delegated to the stakeholders of the territory : to promote agricultural practices via the increase in value of the agricultural/lanscaped/environmental resources. Then, the landscape is one a the instruments for economic and social development ; - when the dispositives are done to make territorial development : lanscape is not necessary a goal of he interventions but it carries value needed to rally local stakeholders and to do emerge territorial projects. Here, th espaces concerned are bigger. The stakeholders. The stakeholders are aware of the wide of the dispositives but they know only a part of them, the one wich is concerned their scope (at the scale of the structure, of the office or of their own role in the dispositive). The consequence is a sectoriel working even if some partnerships exist. Lanscape public policies stimulate kinds of cooperation between structures ; but in the same time, they focused on stress in these processes. The article identifies four kinds of stress : - too generic frameworks for action ; - succession in time of new dispositives which are sometimes at variance with the previous ; - a gap between the local reality and the expactation of the european or national authority. This gap requires sometimes to review the goals, to do again the process of implementation… and to lose the trust of the local stakeholders ; - the terms of implementation of public policies are too short and do not afferd a good enforcement. The gap between policy and territory By studying of the local population’s perception of the landscape, E. Roux and R. Lajarge identify landscape as a central element for the mobilization of stakeholders around projects and for the mobilization of public policies in PNR. In the perceptions, the action on/by landscape referre : - to a patrimony deserving value adding ; - to an agricultural landscape needing to be invested by the collective mobilisation not regarding aesthetic questions but regarding the promotion of agricultural activities, management of space, of patrimony accross policies ; - to a symbol of quality with an important economic function. The increase in value of lanscape is an idea more and more important allowing collective mobilization around public policies. What about the implementation of policies ? For the authors, a public policy is : - a normative discourse participating to build the object on which it intervenes : the object « landscape » becomes an object of public policies, with his definitions, his framework, his sens, etc, in the same time these policies try to build this object to intervene ; - an approach which is never applied strictly and which is open to interpretation. In the valuation of a the creation of a natural parc, the authors are not intersted only in the results. At first, the valuation regards the capacity of the project to mobilize, then the translate in space the stakes of landscape in the project. Finally, it regards its capacity to do a reference of lanscape for collective action. In this case, the action before the creation of the parc were implemented in the LEADER 2 Program (1997-2000). Landscape is central in this program and, if actions on landscape are rares, they produce a discourse about landscape which transforms the perceptions of landscape. The autors underline how it is difficult to link the concertation phase to a working method where the upstream diagnostic phase is done by external experts. At the end, the multiplicity of perceptions of the role of landscape in the parc planning makes difficult the identification of consensual aims. These aims are not heavy if they show a non common image and do not mobilize : then, the parc does not appear as a collective result… To conclue, the article identifies three conceptions of public policies for landscape : - the conservation policies, to keep the landscape ; - the interventionist policies to increase in value the materiality of the landscape to conquest the territory ; - the sustainable development and management policies where landscape is a tool to make development and to mobilize. The stresses show : - a diversity of stakeholders, structures and logics ; - how it is difficult for the stakeholders to know the wide project and all his conditions of implementation ; - a diversity of the possible modes of negociation ; - the complexity and the imprecision of the frameworks and rules given by the legislature body. Landscape public policies do not act directly on landscape : they are mobilized by the territorial stakeholders inside territorial projects. Public action is a tool more than a finality.