Protected Areas Managers, Local Authorities, and Transboundary Conservation: The French Experience

This article deals with the French experience in transboundary nature conservation and is based on some of the main outcomes of a book the author published in 2016. Transboundary conservation is one of the main challenges of contemporary international wildlife law, because, although wildlife knows no boundaries, public law is focused on boundaries. France is not necessarily an example to be followed in this respect, but its experience may be instructive on how transboundary conservation could develop (or not) in a country with the following attributes: a Western European country; a member state of the European Union; a unitary state; and a country (as far as metropolitan France is concerned) with eight terrestrial boundaries (with Andorra, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, Spain, and Switzerland). In South America, the French department of Guyana also shares two terrestrial boundaries with Brazil and Suriname. As a consequence, about ten French protected areas are already adjacent to a foreign protected area across the border. The article will try to answer several questions: Why should (or must) France carry out transboundary conservation? Why should (if not must) France allow protected areas managers and local authorities to cooperate beyond boundaries? How to overcome barriers to transboundary cooperation between protected areas managers and/or local authorities? What are the new challenges to be faced by transboundary conservation at an infrastate level?