Legal and political context

Extract from the dossier “Facilitating land management using information systems”.

The presence of wolves on French territory has been taken into account in a number of public policies: the 2014 Law on the Future of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, the 2016 Law on the Reconquest of Biodiversity, Nature and Landscapes, plans to safeguard pastoralism, and the inclusion of the animal as “vulnerable” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list. These are all legislative frameworks with which elected representatives, breeders and shepherds have to contend.

Action 6.1 of the 2018-2023 national wolf plan calls for real-time information on attacks to be shared between farmers, shepherds, the OFB (formerly ONCFS1), managers of protected areas and DDTs (Direction Départementale des Territoires), and even suggests technical solutions (radios, SMS alerts, etc.). The first system for tracking and mapping wolf attacks was commissioned by the Union pour la Sauvegarde des Activités Pastorales et Rurales (USAPR), a group of 150 mayors, the Société d’Economie Alpestre de Savoie (SEA73) and the Fédération des Alpages de l’Isère (FAI38), and received regional funding from USAPR. An initial version of MapLoup was developed and tested in 2017. The departments of Isère, Savoie and Drôme were the first to benefit from this scheme.

Science needs and INRAE contributions

Content from the “Facilitating land management using information systems” dossier

Data and information systems are a strategic interface for both public policy and research. They offer a multifaceted approach to sustainable regional development issues, making them a useful decision-making tool. Numerous INRAE teams contribute to their development and use in research and public policy support.

In the 1980s, the Ministry of Agriculture launched the Observatoire de la montagne (mountain observatory) with the help of INRAE Grenoble, initiating the development of geomatics skills. These skills underpinned research into regional development and the deployment of public policy support tools. INRAE’s Laboratoire des ÉcoSystèmes et Sociétés En Montagne (LESSEM) in Grenoble is particularly committed to this approach. Indeed, one of the objectives of the laboratory’s research is to help local players manage their areas, in particular through the SIDDT (Territorial Information System), which is used to draw up enhanced territorial diagnoses, and the Maploup mapping and warning tool for pastoralism stakeholders in mountain areas.