Practitioners and wildlife at a time of cohabitation

How can people practicing recreational activities coexist with wildlife? This question will be at the heart of a conference organized from March 29 to 31, 2023 on the site of the Savoie Mont Blanc University in Bourget-du-Lac, in Savoie.

Whether mountainous, rural, or coastal, these three territories face the same problem: succeeding in making the wildlife that populates them coexist with the arrival of those practicing sports and leisure activities. Through several examples and work carried out, the conference, entitled “Cohabitation between recreational practices and wildlife”, will seek to create a link between academic research and managers of natural spaces, particularly affected by these intersecting issues of attendance. and nature preservation.

“In a context of erosion of biodiversity and increased use of natural spaces, this conference, which will bring together scientists and managers of protected areas, will make it possible to respond to management challenges for peaceful coexistence between recreational and wildlife ,” explains Clémence Perrin-Malterre, researcher at the Edytem laboratory (Université Savoie Mont Blanc), and one of the organizers of the conference.

The conference is part of the Humani project that she coordinates, located at the junction of several disciplines such as sociology, geography, ecology and nature management, in mountain areas. As such, it involves several researchers from Labex ITTEM – both within the Scientific Committee and in the range of speakers within the different sessions – including:

Noémie Bailly (Edytem) – Between dog and wolf. Ethnographies of the landscapes of fear of practitioners of recreational activities in the Alpine environment . With Stéphane Marpot. See his thesis

Louis Defraiteur (Edytem) – Being in the “right” place: tourist experience of wildlife observation, a device for controlling the distances between humans and wild animals. See his thesis

Léna Gruas (Labers – University of Western Brittany) and Clémence Perrin-Malterre (Edytem) – Mountain wildlife sports practices: the value system of practitioners at the heart of the relationship with animals . With Anne Loison. See his thesis

Mikaël Chambru ( Gresec ) – The recreational human and his bestiary of (un)desirable people . With Cécilia Claeys.

Find all the information about the conference: https://cohab.sciencesconf.org/
Contact: cohab@sciencesconf.org

View the conference flyer