In France, since the 60’s, agricultural and artificial landscapes seem to have shaped nature conservation strategies and practices. Actually, National Nature Reserves, National Parks and Conservatoire du Littoral Sites (on the french coastlines) are widely dedicated to protect bio-cultural landscapes and use to promote anthropogenic control on ecosystems. Since the 90’s, these objectives were broadly helped by the Natura 2000 policy which enhanced the superficies of ecosystems protected and managed in this way. Despite this framework, the idea of wilderness never stayed away from conservationists thoughts for almost two reasons. The first reason is philosophical as many local protected areas managers question themselves about the final objectives of such interventions on nature and natural process and wonder how far they can get. The second reason is much more contextual as in some places destroyed or degraded ecosystems have to be put in a better natural state, that is to say they need rewilding. For these reasons, and for other motivations which will be detailed further, an important contemporary shift in nature conservation is driven by some iconic nature managers (like Jean-Pierre Génot), NGOs or public institutions (like Conservatoire du Littoral) promoting rewilding or strengthening wilderness preservation. The main objective of this presentation is to give a deep understanding of this shift, from its roots to its first implementations. In a first part, we will try to relate the genealogy of the idea of wilderness in France. Wilderness emerged in the historical dispute about National Parks creation during the first part of the 20th century, and then, came back in the early 80’s with the collapse of marginal agro-pastoral systems that leaded to farm land abandonment. The idea of wilderness remains also very important for some key authors writing about social relationships to nature like François Terrasson or Gilles Clément. In the second part, we will explore the different ways rewilding was implemented in France from the 90’s to the 2000’s as experimental operations: ecological restauration (from the restoration of moors or wetlands impacted by tourism or economic development to the « Recreating Nature » national program), reintroduction of species (like the bear in the Pyreneans), and networks who carry these new ideas. The last part will be dedicated to three case studies about the implementation of rewilding in France in this new wilderness era/shift which is beginning now : feral nature and artificial landcapes in post-industrial and urban contexts, coastal rewilding in the sea leval rise context, and wild rivers.

In France, since the 60’s, agricultural and artificial landscapes seem to have shaped nature conservation strategies and practices. Actually, National Nature Reserves, National Parks and Conservatoire du Littoral Sites (on the french coastlines) are widely dedicated to protect bio-cultural landscapes and use to promote anthropogenic control on ecosystems. Since the 90’s, these objectives were broadly helped by the Natura 2000 policy which enhanced the superficies of ecosystems protected and managed in this way. Despite this framework, the idea of wilderness never stayed away from conservationists thoughts for almost two reasons. The first reason is philosophical as many local protected areas managers question themselves about the final objectives of such interventions on nature and natural process and wonder how far they can get. The second reason is much more contextual as in some places destroyed or degraded ecosystems have to be put in a better natural state, that is to say they need rewilding. For these reasons, and for other motivations which will be detailed further, an important contemporary shift in nature conservation is driven by some iconic nature managers (like Jean-Pierre Génot), NGOs or public institutions (like Conservatoire du Littoral) promoting rewilding or strengthening wilderness preservation. The main objective of this presentation is to give a deep understanding of this shift, from its roots to its first implementations. In a first part, we will try to relate the genealogy of the idea of wilderness in France. Wilderness emerged in the historical dispute about National Parks creation during the first part of the 20th century, and then, came back in the early 80’s with the collapse of marginal agro-pastoral systems that leaded to farm land abandonment. The idea of wilderness remains also very important for some key authors writing about social relationships to nature like François Terrasson or Gilles Clément. In the second part, we will explore the different ways rewilding was implemented in France from the 90’s to the 2000’s as experimental operations: ecological restauration (from the restoration of moors or wetlands impacted by tourism or economic development to the « Recreating Nature » national program), reintroduction of species (like the bear in the Pyreneans), and networks who carry these new ideas. The last part will be dedicated to three case studies about the implementation of rewilding in France in this new wilderness era/shift which is beginning now : feral nature and artificial landcapes in post-industrial and urban contexts, coastal rewilding in the sea leval rise context, and wild rivers.