Les agriculteurs dans la préservation des fonds de vallée : écueils et succès des politiques publiques d’environnement territorialisées

Valley bottoms are areas where public environmental policies overlap. As part of the FARMAINE research program, we investigated the role of these public policies in the evolution of agricultural uses, and how farmers fit into local arenas of regulation. To do this, we surveyed 28 farmers in the Sarthon basin, renowned for its ecological qualities. We show that different production systems coexist there. Examination of this diversity reveals two contrasting approaches to the relationship between agriculture and preservation of valley bottoms: a rewiliding approach and a productive agroecological approach. While farmers? uses and practices are generally in line with the objectives of the public environmental policies, they are highly critical of the scheme?s governance. The effects of the superimposition of public action schemes appear to be nuanced: they seem to contribute to the development of an ecologized professional culture, and to maintaining forms of land use consistent with the objectives of the public environmental policies. Nevertheless the governance of local schemes raises such criticism that farmers for the most part disengage themselves from these schemes. This leads us to point to a weakening of the public authorities? ability to steer the management of agricultural land in valley bottoms.