Protected mountain areas: territories as an interface between science and management

The history of mountain protected areas is characterized by the resort to several registers of legitimacy over time. Their creation was initially often justified by their capacity to act as microcosms and represent the world because of the presence in these areas of a variety of species and habitats. Many of them later conforted their action by mobilizing the register of exceptionality symbolized by the protection of a few iconic species and landscapes. These two registers are currently being fragilized by the emergence of concepts such as ordinary biodiversity, preservation of ecological functionalities, and dynamical stewardship of biodiversity in a context of adaptation issues raised by global changes. This has contributed to the emergence of a new register of legitimacy: that of reference territories diversely influenced by human activities. Mountain areas, then, are presented as interfaces between science and management that allow a long-term monitoring of biophysical as well as socio-economical evolutions.

The session will aim to investigate the practical modalities of interface between science and management on mountain territories by documenting and analyzing a diversified set of experiences, models and methods deployed in French and foreign protected areas, notably in the Alpine range :

• overview of existing ways of interfacing science and management (scientific councils, LTSER sites, collaborative research programmes, co-funded PhD projects, …), their practices and postures and their added value both for knowledge production and nature and land management.
• focus on scientific councils.
• comparing so-called “sentinel programmes” (“Sentinel mountain pastures”, “sentinel lakes”, “sentinel huts”, etc.) genesis, functioning and outcomes (in terms of knowledge, collectives, actions).
• questionning the complementarities, synergies and/or tensions between these different ways of interfacing science and management and draw conclusions on the factors of success for establishing partnerships between scientists and protected area managers.