Conservation of the Brown Bear: A Multifaceted Task. Bridging the Analytical Gap between Theory and Fieldwork in Conservation[Sur les pas des hommes qui ont vu l’ours. La conservation de la faune sauvage, un travail réel]

The Brown Bear Conservation Scheme in the French Pyrenees is highly emblematic. But the attention it has caused is due mainly to the many conflicts arising from its implementation. Our paper proposes to look deeper into this case in order to address an issue that has been greatly neglected : the work of wildlife conservation fieldworkers. The paper starts with a review of literature in this field and shows that the literature is essentially normative and does not consider the actual work of practitioners. Taking a closer look at their actual activities, our purpose is to develop an analytical framework aimed at filling the persistent gap between theory and practice often described in the literature. This framework is developed both empirically, as applied to the Brown Bear Conservation Scheme, and in a synthetic way, as an intermediary tool that could potentially apply to a wider range of cases. « Generating knowledge », « Taking care of », « Reporting » and « Living with »: these four aspects, which function in synergy and in tension, are the constitutive analytical elements of our proposal. Our paper aims to bring to the fore the specific issues involved in conservation work and if possible open the way to a connection with the work sciences (ergology, psychodynamics of work) that until now have paid very little attention to the management of wilderness and the environment.