Role of protected areas in biodiversity conservation – An interdisciplinary analysis of management effectiveness
The Maisons des Sciences de l’Homme (MSH) in Montpellier (MSH SUD) and Toulouse (MSHS-T), the BiodivOc, RIVOC, and Octaave key challenges, the University of Montpellier (Pôle AEB), Paul Valéry University (UPVM), and the doctoral school "Territoires, Temps, Société et Développement" (Territories, Time, Society, and Development) (ED 60) are pleased to invite you to the next conference in the series "Regards croisés sur le vivant en société" (Cross-perspectives on living beings in society). (ED 60) are pleased to invite you to the next conference in the series Perspectives on Life in Society.
Everysecond Tuesday of the month between October 2025 and May 2026.
Why would an ecologist want to collaborate with a colleague from management science? Why is management science interested in protected areas (PAs)?
Since 2006, the IUCN has provided a framework for assessing the effectiveness of protected area (PA) management, given the essential role that PAs play in biodiversity conservation. This has led to the emergence of the term "paper park"to describe PAs where management is lacking or highly ineffective. In France, PAs are at the heart of biodiversity conservation policies. Their contribution to conservation depends not only on the richness of these natural environments or their legal status, but above all on how they are managed.
Nathalie BOUTIN and Rutger DE WIT offer a cross-disciplinary perspective combining ecology and management science to understand why some APs struggle to achieve their objectives. Based on work carried out in the lagoons of southern France, we analyze the constraints faced by managers, who are often caught between administrative requirements, numerical or profitability targets, and the complexity of living ecosystems.
This series of lectures brings together specialists from the humanities and social sciences on the one hand, and ecology (in the broad sense) and the environment on the other, to discuss major environmental issues with a view to broadening perceptions towards an interdisciplinary approach.
Eight doctoral schools in Occitanie (ED58, ED60, and Gaïa in Montpellier; SEVAB and SDU2E in Toulouse; ED305 and ED544 in Perpignan; and ED Risques et société in Nîmes) offer the program to their doctoral students as part of their training (registration required via ADUM).
The primary objective is therefore "acculturation," particularly for young researchers (although the seminars will be open to the entire scientific community), and to show how the same subject can be studied in very different ways by different sciences. In the longer term, the goal is to encourage aspiring researchers to integrate interdisciplinary approaches into their everyday work.
The series, offered in a hybrid format, is broadcast live from the Maison des sciences de l’Homme.
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