Thèse-EliseBuisson-Chapitre1

Chapter 1 History of La Crau Creation of the Natural Reserve of La Crau: implications for the creation and management of protected areas. 1* 2Elise Buisson and Thierry Dutoit 1 Institute of Mediterranean Ecology and Paleoecology, UMR/CNRS 6116 University P. Cézanne, FST Saint Jérôme, case 462 13397 Marseille Cedex 20 France 2 UMR INRA-UAPV 406, Écologie des Invertébrés Site Agroparc 84914 Avignon France Article accepted in Journal of Environmental Management on August th26 2005. Abstract Grasslands were once widespread and species-rich ecosystems, they have drastically decreased throughout the world, largely due to changes in land-uses. Remnant grasslands are often highly degraded and disconnected and require active conservation. In order for grasslands to be maintained worldwide, protected areas need to be created. While adequately creating and managing protected areas has proven difficult, this can be improved by following a three-point guideline: 1) consider many ecological groups (birds, insects, plants); 2) use conservation biology knowledge; 3) seek agreements with concerned parties by comprehending elements of economy, politics and sociology. Based on the example of La Crau, a steppe area in South-eastern France, this review aims at i) illustrating that this guideline can facilitate creating and managing protected areas and ii) proposing improvement to the guideline while keeping it simple. In La Crau, the need for ...