ADN Librem – Between freedom and regulation in mountain access

While access to nature may seem self-evident, various situations of restricted access in the field are a reminder that this is not the case. These access restrictions are very diverse, and can originate from private actors (landowners) or public actors (fire or avalanche risk management, management of visitation perceived as excessive…).

Yet nature, and a fortiori the mountains, are generally regarded as a common good that should be freely accessible to as many people as possible, without any special conditions or authorizations. Visiting natural areas is a social aspiration that is becoming increasingly audible, given the virtues of contact with nature in terms of well-being and public health.

Indeed, restrictions on access, which are often sudden, generally give rise to lively protests, sometimes leading to major mobilizations (for example, in the Chartreuse since autumn 2023). These tensions are rooted in a divergence between opposing conceptions of nature, between private and common space, but also between contrasting conceptions of the ways in which these spaces can be used, between freedom, regulation and prohibition.

It is these tensions that the ADN-Librem project proposes to investigate, through a field survey of various territories where conflicts exist (or have existed) over access to nature. The project aims to identify :

1) the main reasons for restricting access to nature;

2) factors of conflict and, conversely, of acceptance;

3) practical arrangements aimed at negotiating the in-between space between private and common, and reconciling the principle of freedom with observable regulations and prohibitions.