Practitioners and wildlife at a time of cohabitation

How can recreational users and wildlife coexist? This question will be at the heart of a symposium to be held from March 29 to 31, 2023 at the Université Savoie Mont Blanc in Le Bourget-du-Lac, Savoie.

Whether mountainous, rural or coastal, these three areas face the same problem: how to ensure that the wild fauna that inhabits them can coexist with the arrival of sports and leisure activities. The symposium, entitled “Cohabitation between recreational practices and wildlife”, will draw on a number of examples and studies to bridge the gap between academic research and natural area managers, who are particularly affected by the issues of visitor numbers and nature conservation.

” Against a backdrop of eroding biodiversity and increasing use of natural areas, this symposium, which will bring together scientists and protected area managers, will address the management issues involved in ensuring peaceful cohabitation between recreational practices and wildlife “, explains Clémence Perrin-Malterre, a researcher at the Edytem laboratory (Savoie Mont Blanc University), and one of the symposium organizers.

The colloquium is part of the Humani project she coordinates, which lies at the crossroads of several disciplines, including sociology, geography, ecology and nature management, in mountain areas. As such, it involves several Labex ITTEM researchers – both on the Scientific Committee and in the range of speakers at the various sessions – including :

Noémie Bailly (Edytem) – Between dog and wolf. Ethnographies des paysages de la peur des pratiquants d’activités récréatives en milieu alpin. With Stéphane Marpot. See her thesis

Louis Defraiteur (Edytem) – Être à la ” bonne ” place : expérience touristique d’observation de la faune un dispositif de maîtrise des distances entre humains et animaux sauvages. See his thesis

Léna Gruas (Labers – Université de Bretagne occidentale) and Clémence Perrin-Malterre (Edytem) –Mountain wildlife sports: the value system of participants at the heart of the relationship with animals. With Anne Loison. See her thesis

Mikaël Chambru (Gresec) – Recreational humans and their bestiary of (in)desirables. With Cécilia Claeys .

For furtherinformation on the symposium: https: //cohab.sciencesconf.org/
Contact: cohab@sciencesconf.org

See the conference flyer