Sustainable development in mountainous areas: The case of the department of Lozère, France

The study case presented in this report is the French département of Lozère. A particular interest of this case is precisely the fact that since the sixties, a number of development operations and actions have here been implemented on the whole department, and not on smaller homogeneous areas, as it was generally in the same time in France and other European countries. This is the consequence of the awareness by a majority of Lozère politicians and economic actors, especially in the agricultural sector, which still represents a large part of the local activity, that the risk of economic and social marginalization was high in all the department, and that it was necessary to define common principles for the development of the whole area, and to build a local identity and common knowledge and will for action. Lozère was the subject of many studies and research actions done in cooperation with the local institutions, generally aware of the interest of such collaborations for the continuation and improvement of their reflex. In spite of the particular importance of department in the French political and economic institutional framework, all local development actions benefiting French or European funds are organized at smaller geographic level, and there are strong incentives to do so. Most politicians and economic actors of Lozère decided to oppose this tendency, arguing that this department is a particular case, due to is small population, small number of farms, particular physical constraints, geographic isolation, and relative economic and social homogeneity. They considered that defining different policies for different areas inside Lozère would be a source of disparities, and they alleged a notion of lozerian solidarity to justify their policy.