Agricultural-ecological management of agricultural lands being abandoned in Provence: context, consequences, methodology and development of a reference system

Abstract

Like other areas in France, the Haut-Var has been affected by the abandoning of agricultural land resulting in reforestation. Although the causes are known (decline of wine growing in areas whose wine was considered of inferior quality), the consequences are more difficult to establish. The studies concerning this phenomenon turn around three main considerations: the risk for the biophysical environment (erosion and disappearance of biotopes), the risk for the landscapes (their transformation has already begun as shown by an obvious closing of the views), the risks due to physical closing of the environment (factors decreasing biodiversity, risk of fires and their wide propagation). To meet this preoccupation of maintaining the quality of the natural space in Haut-Var, CERPRAM has decided to study the value of this reforestation in the eyes of the various managers of the space, the managing methods which, according to them, would allow countering the risks mentioned above and favour the expression of the values and interests which they find or would like to find in this uncultivated space. The management of these areas oblige us thus to take into account all the cases of reforestation present in Haut-Var. It incites us also to consider solutions to meet the expectations of the various partners and to study a management method actually used on some plots: management by raising sheep. The study concludes by suggestions reconciling the interests of all the actual and future users of these areas.