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Short abstract:

In the Brière swamp, overlapping “environmental zones” serve different objectives. Challenges are numerous. This study explores the complexities of environmental zoning and the role of environmental sciences in shaping local management strategies.

Long abstract:

International agreements have recently vowed to dedicate 30% of land surfaces to area-based conservation. Contrary to nature parks of the past, this generalization of what I propose to call “environmental zoning” does no longer merely aim at preserving uninhabited nature, but also at protecting biodiversity while maintaining human activities.

In many places, such as the Brière swamp in western France, this global policy translates into the overlapping of a variety of “zones” dedicated to specific environmental agendas: Natura2000 sites and biological reserves refer to spaces dedicated to the conservation and restoration of European environments, while a Regional Nature Park (Parc Naturel Régional) and a Unesco Biosphere Reserve seek to promote sustainable development.

In this manuscript, I conceptualize environmental zoning as a device for delineating, studying, valuating and controlling specific places for environmental purposes. Landscapes are thereby remade, and new ways of governing human-environment relations are experimented. I show that this does not go without friction and resistance. In the Brière swamp, park managers struggle with the containment of “invasive species” such as water primroses, nutrias and the Louisiana crawfish, while farmers and hunters regularly protest against restrictions on their activities. Meanwhile, tourists, another “invasive species” according to some, are attracted by the (valuating) labels of the different zoning devices. These frictions and struggles raise the following questions which I seek to answer: (1) what is to be sustained in Brière, for whom and for what purpose?; and (2) wat is the role of environmental sciences in environmental zoning?