The Conservancies Model: How France has Mobilized over 8,000 Volunteers as a Voice for Nature
In the 1970s in France, as across much of the world, environmental concerns were rising. The first half of the 20th century was marked with startling declines in wild mammal populations across Europe that corresponded with loose hunting laws and significant habitat loss. Individuals, organizations, and government agencies across France were responding, working to conserve ecosystems and looking to design and implement innovative practices to do so. Practitioners were aware that it was no longer enough to focus only on areas where species could be protected simply by restricting human access. Well over 50 percent of land in France was being used and managed—largely for agriculture—but that did not preclude it from being part of the solution. The challenge was reaching landowners.
Unlike in the United States and Australia, where the use of conservation easements helped facilitate voluntary private land conservation, France did not have this type of legal tool at its disposal. The only way to directly implement sustainable management plans on properties was through acquisition. Yet no organization had the power or resources necessary to obtain all the land that could benefit from these practices. But what if there were ways to collaborate with landowners, to bring them together around a shared knowledge base, support them in how to implement nature-friendly stewardship and land management strategies themselves, and reward them for doing so?
This was the motivation behind the Conservatoires d’espaces naturels (Conservancies of Natural Areas), or CEN, a non-governmental network for land protection founded in 1976 through a collaboration between workers at nature-protection organizations and local people with an interest in conservation. Around the same time, France established the Conservatoire du littoral (Coastal Conservancy), which had a mission and strategy that could be used as a model for the emerging CEN network but was focused specifically on protecting France’s coastline from urbanization and other threats.
Launching a network
CEN’s first two conservancies were in the Alsace and Provence-Alpes-Côte D’Azur (PACA) regions of France. Today, the network has expanded to 24 conservancies across France, including in metropolitan and oversea territories. Its non-profit associations manage 4,400 sites across 300,000 hectares (ha)—about 741,316 acres—and are the main private actors helping to implement France’s network of protected areas. They are gathered in a federal organization called Fédération des Conservatoires d’espaces naturels (Federation of Conservancies of Natural Areas), which coordinates the network and helps it influence national decision makers, leading searches for funding, consolidating the network, and driving member organizations toward a shared mission and strategy.
Importantly, CENs also have special legal status.
In 2011, lawmakers created a pathway to formal recognition for CENs, writing their legal definition into France’s environmental code.
“This is very important because it allows our network to be officially recognized by elected officials and all actors of the territory, public and private, in which we develop our action,” said François Salmon, director of network animation for the Federation of Conservancies of Natural Areas. Legal recognition improved the network’s visibility and opened doors to new opportunities to finance its work. Since only organizations that have joined the Federation can request state or regional approval, it also supports the consistency of the network.
Developing a shared identity and connecting with communities
Conservancies’ shared purpose is to preserve species, natural or semi-anthropized habitats, geodiversity, and landscapes in both metropolitan France and overseas. This is driven by five core missions: knowing, protecting, managing, raising awareness, and accompanying (see box).
With these tactics to guide them, member organizations aim to embed themselves in communities to work hand-in-glove with the people who live on and around sustainably managed land. Since the network’s beginning, CEN employees and members have worked to gain communities’ trust by first introducing themselves to local leaders and interest groups. They reach out to mayors, hunters, farmers, and sports associations, hoping to be accepted into the communities they want to work in.
Salmon said it is a lot of work to earn locals’ trust, but that it is necessary to develop successful, long-term, biodiversity-friendly solutions. This ensures that protected and managed natural sites are particularly well integrated into local contexts.
Through CENs’ efforts, some local actors can be convinced to develop and follow sustainable management plans for their properties through their own means. Others are willing to collaborate with member organizations.
Addressing the concern of who should own land
CENs are also promoting community engagement by diversifying ownership. Initially, the network tried to gain full ownership of land wherever possible. In pursuit of that goal, by 2024, it had acquired about 18,000 ha (about 44,479 acres) of land.
As CENs owned more land, their methods began to spur criticism from some public funding bodies. The CENs were private operators but were primarily publicly funded. The network came together to brainstorm solutions that would help their members better reassure public funding bodies and build trust in private land conservation approaches.
What emerged was a new legal tool: an endowment fund launched in 2011—and transformed in 2023—called the foundation for public utility Espaces naturels de France (Foundation for Natural Areas of France). The foundation enables donations of land and funds from public or private organizations and from citizens to support land conservation efforts.
This is not the only legal tool CEN’s have helped develop. They also had a hand in creating a mechanism similar to the concept of a conservation easement but designed for a civil-law framework. In French law, there are a few options for creating land-management agreements with landowners. The most recent of these is the obligation réelle environmentale (ORE), or real environmental obligation. This tool, born from France’s 2016 Law for the Recovery of Biodiversity, Nature and Landscapes, enables long-term contracts that are attached to the land, rather than the landowner or user.
Becoming involved with a CEN
To ensure member associations are committed to the CEN framework, they must ratify the network’s charter before joining. The charter, first drafted in 1989, is a living document that sets out the values and missions of CENs. To qualify to become a CEN, an organization must also be an association of law 1901 or 1908.
There are several ways for individuals to be involved with a CEN. The Conservancies are a mixed organization, consisting of volunteers and employees, with more than 8,500 members and 1,200 employees currently working in the 24 territorial organizations.
Conservancies are run by a combination of employees and volunteers, as volunteerism is both a legal requirement and a fundamental principle of CENs. The organizations facilitate numerous volunteer activities throughout the year to build their own capacity and connect people to nature, instilling a feeling of responsibility for its maintenance.
Members—committed volunteers who play various roles within CENs—are particularly important for influencing policies and funders. Because they come from the communities CENs serve, they are the constituents that local politicians are appointed to serve and the beneficiaries of financial capital from philanthropists, investors, and grant makers. United, they represent a significant bloc of stakeholders whose voices penetrate state and regional politics.
Members also influence public policy more directly from seats within many political bodies and working groups, including the National Biodiversity Committee, the Natura 2000 Resources Center of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, and the National Conference of Protected Areas of the French Office of Biodiversity (OFB). They also act as consultants for ministries, local authorities, universities, sports federations and all other actors of the territories.
Spreading impact and looking to the future
CENs protect diverse landscapes, including dry lawns, wetlands, moors, and meadows, but their work spreads far beyond the sites they manage. Much of the network’s focus is on information sharing and education. They facilitate over 3,000 local events each year, including about 1,300 school trips with 23 academies and 500 partner schools. They also publish a nature activity book to engage children through games, facts, and illustrations and Discovering Remarkable Sites, a book about the sites preserved by conservancies.
Leaders of the network of Conservancies of Natural Areas are acutely aware of the enormity of the challenge of preserving France’s biodiversity. To meet it, they maintain unwavering determination to act on the ground and to include all actors, public and private, collective or individual, and from all generations. Through the conservancies method, based on partnership, consultation, citizen mobilization, and the commitment of landowners and rights holders, they believe their work can contribute significantly to improving the state of nature across the nation.
Have news? Share updates from your organization or country by emailing lrobinson@lincolninst.edu.