Imagine a forest where dead trees would be left on the ground, old trunks would die on their feet without fear of being felled and where animals would not have to be hunted by human presence or disturbed by the noise of their activities. In France, this type of primary, wild nature, which arouses the interest of scientists and the wonder of hikers does exist. But it only represents a tiny part of the territory. Barely a few tens of thousands of hectares located largely in the Alps, the Pyrenees, where man can pass as a discreet walker, almost as an intruder.
Changes in land use – soil artificialisation, agriculture, pollution – and the degradation of habitats represent the first pressure on ecosystems. An urgent alert of the need to preserve havens of nature according to certain specialists who now plead for a “rewilding” of these spaces. “A wild nature, these are spaces that man does not care about”, explains the writer and naturalist Gilbert Cochet, co-author with Stéphane Durand of Let’s re-wild France (South Acts). “These areas, to function best, must have the maximum number of living species, with predators, prey and scavengers,” he explains. Depending on the modes of action, this rewilding could go through “free evolution”, where the fauna and flora would be totally free from human action, or even through the reintroduction of species.
rewilding, rewilding, or full naturalness: if the concept takes many names, it has especially become in recent years a promising theme, while the attraction of the public for natural spaces continues to grow. But on the metropolitan territory the places of protection that could be described as “wild” remain very limited. “Among the tools towards full naturalness, there are integral reserves of national parks and integral biological reserves, but this corresponds to very small areas”, concedes Lilian Léonard, responsible for “scientific support for the creation of protected areas”. , within PatriNat, the center of expertise and data on French natural heritage.
A radical protection policy
For scientists, the interest of preserving areas with “high naturalness” is clear, it helps to preserve the environment and promote the return of biodiversity. To align itself with the European strategy, France has also set itself ambitious objectives: to protect, by 2030, 30% of the territory, including 10% in a reinforced way, whereas this level does not represent today today only 2.4% of our land. How to encourage rewilding? “It’s a principle towards which we want to tend, but everything depends on the cursor: at what level of nature do we want to return, and which original point to choose?” pretends to wonder Lilian Léonard. Should we take into account the impact of human activities in the current state of biodiversity, or try to return to a primary nature, like that of the Paleolithic era? These kinds of questions divide scientists.
Considering that most of these spaces are not sufficiently protected, the Association for the Protection of Wild Animals and Natural Heritage (Aspas) has decided to take the lead: its policy is to buy land to make wild spaces, free from human action. “Our reserves make it possible to put in place the highest standard of protection, that is to say that there is no human activity of exploitation, not even pastoralism”, explains Marc Giraud, naturalist and word of Aspas. A protection policy which “may seem radical, he admits, but which is extremely rare these days”.
The association says it now has about 2,000 hectares on which nature is in free evolution. Some in Brittany on the banks of a river, others like forests in the Drôme. So many bits of biodiversity obtained by donations from individuals, or purchased with private funding, which have not failed to arouse sometimes very strong opposition.
Different visions of protection
In the field, in fact, rewilding does not happen everywhere. In 2019, Aspas had positioned itself to become the owner of private land located on the mountain of Miélandre, in Vesc, in the Drôme Provençale. The 243-hectare forest was thus to be returned to “free naturalness”, i.e. an intact, unmanaged nature allowing a haven for local vegetation and fauna. But the project quickly aroused the concern of local communities, hunters and breeders’ unions. After a long battle with the Land Development and Rural Settlement Company (Safer), it was finally a community that took over the land. In a press release published that year, the Confédération paysanne, an agricultural organization classified on the left, was thus alarmed by the strategy of Aspas, fearing that “the ideology of rewilding” would become “a new argument, resembling virtuous, to exclude farmers from their land by disqualifying their practices”. Their methods are also discussed, and fuel fears of seeing land prices inflate. “The associations have considerable sources of funding which allow them to acquire land at prices well above those normally practiced, encouraging both the owners to sell to them and moreover preventing the peasants from becoming buyers”, deplores the Confederacy.
“There have been a lot of fantasies around Aspas, deplores Marc Giraud, who recognizes that the association is “forced to work on local opposition, to be careful not to offend and to be well understood”. But its policy clashes above all with the different visions of nature. Breeders and hunters defend one where man would have his full place: “We forget that it is after all he who shaped this magnificent landscape and it is clear that these strong protection areas where it is systematically excluded, it is not natural”, assures Nicolas Rivet, director of the National Federation of Hunters.
Ecological and economic benefits
With his very young association Rewilding France, Gilles Rayé defends another approach, which should allow the return of wild species to protected areas, in consultation with local organizations. “We must return to a functional ecology, which takes into account the diverse fauna and cohabitation with man”, underlines the former adviser to the Ministry of Ecology. “We want to reflect on the interest of the wild for society as a whole and how to improve the biodiversity of a territory to enable it to develop ecotourism.”
This rewilding strategy has already proven itself in France. “With the protection and reintroduction of certain species, we have seen the return of large predators”, underlines the writer Gilbert Cochet, who takes pleasure in listing the various successes. “The wolf is now very well established in the Pyrenees, as well as the bear, and the lynx in the Jura. And then the ungulates also returned to the Pyrenees, such as the chamois which we now see in large numbers and the ibex Iberian.”
The main message conveyed by these naturalists consists in saying that beyond biodiversity, the wild world can pay off, at a lower cost. The reintroduction of the vulture in the Vercors and Baronnies Provençales regional parks has been studied. According to a report co-signed by Gilles Rayé, the raptor has even allowed “the return of the ecological function of rendering for the benefit of breeders and has generated the development of a local economy based on ecotourism”. Examples abound, and leave scientists dreaming. “A population that knows the natural environment is a population that is becoming more and more naturalistic,” argues Gilbert Cochet. A wonder at nature that could well serve to better protect it.