Meredith Welch-Devine

In this essay, we discuss the economic constraints and opportunities that Basque farmers in two neighbouring valleys in France faced before the 2003 reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). In the last decade, constraints and opportunities have shifted, and farmers have diversified their economic strategies in order to cope with a rise in rural tourism and second home ownership, an expansion of leisure activities into what has historically been an agricultural territory, and the implications that the uncertain future of the European Union’s CAP has for small family farmers in this area. We examine this diversification of household economic strategies to include non-agricultural activities and the implications it has for economic health and rural livelihoods in the Basque region.

Much of the co-management literature is dedicated to determining the conditions that allow for successful management of natural resources. However, what constitutes" success" is often left undefined. In practice, though, it is clear that different actors have different ways of conceptualizing success. This paper examines how different actors define success in the context of a common property system in southwestern France that is transitioning to a co-management system.

Many conservation practitioners and scholars have called for increasing involvement of the social sciences in conservation and better integration among the various disciplines engaged in conservation practice. This research uses the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Fourth World Conservation Congress (WCC) as a site of ethnographic inquiry to explore in-depth how conservation researchers and practitioners view the social sciences in conservation. This paper situates those views in the context of the WCC itself and treats such themes as the appropriate role for the social sciences in conservation, conflicts between social and natural scientists, and sorting out differences between academic social scientists and those working within conservation organisations. It ends with a reflection on what changes new approaches to conservation might bring to the relationship between natural and social sciences in conservation.

Keywords: social sciences, conservation, interdisciplinarity, World Conservation Congress, IUCN

The implementation of the European Union’s flagship conservation initiative— Natura 2000—has been particularly drawn out and difficult in the French Basque province of Soule. Local actors have vigorously resisted the creation of Natura 2000 sites and the design of management plans for these sites. This article examines the network of actors and organizations that sprung up to resist Natura 2000 alongside the network designed for its implementation. It explores the role of ethnography in network analysis and discusses the implications of this analysis for conservation
policy.

Abstract The Basque province of Soule (department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France) contains more than 14,000 hectares of common-pool land. This land provides numerous resources, most notably summer pasturage, to the animal raisers of the province who, for centuries, have collectively managed that land under a common property regime. Under this system, the animal raisers must operate within boundaries first set by the French state and later added to by the European Union, although as long as their management actions do ...