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L’adaptation à l’environnement et l’isolement sont cruciaux dans la genèse de la géodiversité, ou diversité géographique, comme dans la formation des diversités culturelle et biologique. Ces facteurs, d’ordre évolutionniste et écologique dans le dernier cas, historique et géographique dans les autres, se dégradent avec la mondialisation. Après avoir exposé la conception de la géographie sur laquelle est fondée la notion, on examine la formation de la géodiversité qui accompagne le peuplement humain de la Terre, avant de présenter deux cas où les géographies mises en œuvre par les populations expliquent la diversification linguistique par isolement territorial et l’adaptation optimale d’un genre de vie aux écosystèmes marins. Préserver et inventer la géodiversité permettent l’habitation durable de la Terre pour l’humanité et les autres êtres vivants dans leurs diversités respectives.

L’article aborde les relations entre les processus de spatialisation et les représentations de la biodiversité en analysant un dispositif de légitimation scientifique de l’action publique environnementale dans les Antilles françaises, les zones naturelles d’intérêt écologique, faunistique et floristique (Znieff). Dans un contexte de prolifération des normes et des injonctions globales en matière de développement durable, l’analyse des Znieff permet de revisiter la cartographie de la biodiversité. À partir d’une grille d’analyse issue des apports de deux disciplines, l’écologie et la géographie, l’article questionne les incertitudes cartographiques liées à ce dispositif.

Dans la première moitié du XXème siècle, alors que la Haute-Volta (actuel Burkina Faso) subissait une terrible épidémie de maladie du sommeil, l’administration coloniale française a orchestré des déplacements massifs de populations de la Haute-Volta vers la Côte d’Ivoire, pour exploiter le territoire. Cela a conduit à la mise en place de villages de colonisation Mossi en zone forestière ivoirienne, comme ceux de Koudougou, issus de l’une des régions les plus peuplées de Haute-Volta, mais aussi l’une des plus touchées par la maladie du sommeil. Depuis 2000, au Burkina Faso, c’est dans le district sanitaire de Koudougou que sont dépistés passivement le plus grand nombre de trypanosomés en provenance de Côte d’Ivoire. Qui sont-ils ? Où habitent-ils au Burkina Faso ? D’où viennent-ils de Côte d’Ivoire ? Après avoir retracé l’histoire épidémiologique des villages de Koudougou au Burkina Faso et en Côte d’Ivoire, nous avons recherché les trypanosomés dépistés passivement depuis 2000 dans le district sanitaire de Koudougou au Burkina Faso. Au total, dix trypanosomés ont été enquêtés. Le processus de propagation de la maladie du sommeil dans l’espace ivoiro-burkinabé a été mis en évidence et des zones à risque de la maladie identifiées dans ce même espace.

Au Burkina-Faso, la boucle du Mouhoun constitue un foyer historique des trypanosomoses humaines africaines (THA) et animales africaines (TAA), transmises par les glossines. Aujourd’hui, la THA semble avoir disparu de cette région après quelques soubresauts dans les années 1970, tandis que la TAA continue de sévir. Afin de mieux comprendre ces évolutions divergentes, nous avons mené une étude géographique basée sur l’analyse de photographies aériennes entre 1952 et 2007, ainsi que d’enquêtes de terrain sur les aspects médicaux, entomologiques et vétérinaires des trypanosomoses. Il apparaît que le paysage de cette région a connu en l’espace d’un siècle des modifications intenses, notamment du fait de l’augmentation des densités de population et des surfaces cultivées, qui n’ont pas été sans conséquences sur le nombre et la distribution des mouches tsé-tsé. Associée à la lutte médicale qui avait permis la stérilisation du réservoir humain de trypanosomes dans les années 1940, cette dégradation paysagère, accompagnée du développement des aménagements hydrauliques et d’évolutions des modalités de migration des hommes et des animaux, semble pouvoir expliquer ces disparités THA/TAA. La mise en évidence de ces facteurs, et leur prise en compte lors d’études ultérieures menées dans d’autres régions, devrait permettre de délimiter des zones d’intervention prioritaires contre les trypanosomoses et leurs vecteurs dans un contexte de lutte internationale contre ces pathologies.

This article discusses the relationships between the processes of spatialization and representations of biodiversity by analyzing a scheme for scientific legitimation of environmental public policy in the French Antilles, the Natural Areas of Ecological, Faunal and Floral Interest (Znieff). In the context of setting global standards for biodiversity management, an analysis of the Znieff allows to revisit the meanings of the biodiversity mapping from a scientific legitimation scheme. Building an analytical grid from two disciplines, ecology and geography, we question the mapping uncertainties that support this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents an insight from epidemiology and geography on the BSE risk. The epidemic declined sharply following the ban of meat and bone meal in ruminant feed. BSE cases born after the ban and reinforced measures were due to cross-contamination between feed for monogastrics and feed for ruminants at the feed factory and on farms. Cross-contamination is difficult to control in the feed chain, particularly because contaminated material can infect cattle at very low doses. Designing separate feed processing lines or dedicating factories to ruminants is an efficient strategy, but is not economically feasible in the regions with low animal density. So, changes in control measures should target both the feed industry and farmers, and take into account the difficult economic context that limits the industry’s ability to adopt the most effective solutions to prevent cross-contamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To manage large wildlife, control proliferations or protect species, one needs to work on extensive territories and take the diversity of the geographical environment into account. This is defined by three main factors that are meaningful from both natural and social standpoints, i.e., density, accessibility and shape. Alone or combined, they offer new perspectives on the management of wild boar and wolf. Regarding wild boars, animal as well as human density, sometimes linked to the effects of shape or accessibility, accounts for the diversity of management methods applied in the different French régions. As for wolves, their perception of the environment as either friendly or non-friendly depends both on natural (trophic, intraspecific competition, topographic) factors and social factors (breeding conditions, legal status). Under the pressure of control culling adjusted to local situations, feelings change with increasing densities. The study of Spanish situations shows how wolf distribution is due to a combination of human density, natural preys and cattle farming and also to the relationships between hunters and livestock farmers. To conclude, we propose to include the density ratio between farmers and hunters in management parameters. We argue that the legal status of species should change when densities increase based on a département spatial scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participation has become a consensual objective. It has been inscribed in different international and national regulatory texts — Rio Summit, Aarhus Convention, French 1995 Environmental Law — and generates a mass of academic work. Nonetheless, existing scientific literature deals little with the categories of "public" involved in the different modes of participation. This paper is based upon the assertion that improved participation requires greater in-depth definition of the targeted public. On the basis of empirical work dealing with social contestation about windfarms, the paper examines the different participating characters and their related spaces as perceived by public and private actors engaged in the development of wind energy production: the diversely defined neighbour — the neighbour as owner, the "oversensitive" neighbour; the (rarely mentioned) citizen; and the emerging local inhabitant. The promises and dangers of this emerging character are discussed: could there be a place in participation for the local inhabitant as a geographical human being — one whose experience of the environment matters, conceived as including both socio-political and sensitive dimensions —, in the current context where primacy is given to private spaces and where a new model of citizenship is created, based no longer on associative forms of interaction but on the right to be left alone and on the right to exclude (Mitchell, 2005)? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From some 30 million inhabitants in 1900 West African population has risen to 306 million in 2010. Within one century this under-populated region which used to display landscapes often unscarred by human action has turned into a highly anthropized, densely populated region. The three major factors of this evolution have been high rural density (from a maximum of 25 inhabitants/km2 in 1892 to over 100 inhabitants/km2 nowadays), rapid urbanization (from 10 % of urban people in 1950 to 50 % predicted for 2020) and a dramatic degradation of vegetation in savannah, forest and mangrove areas. The population will continue to grow and is expected to reach between 550 to 700 million inhabitants in 2050, depending respectively on low or high hypotheses. It is worthwhile speculating about the evolution of land settlement and landscapes and the already strained relationships between humans, resources and the environment in population enclaves which in addition will be subjected to high climatic variability. To prevent a generalization of conflicts and their fatal consequences on sustainable development (education, accommodation, health), it is advisable to accurately appraise the challenges Western Africa will have to face 50 years from now and also to become aware that none of these challenges can be met without taking into consideration the interrelations existing between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) set the "good ecological status" of rivers as an objective to be reached before 2015. Monitoring, evaluation and feedback are therefore necessary. This paper highlights results from a first Internet French census which identified 480 initiatives declared as restoration actions. Results show that: 1. The definition of restoration is as yet neither clear nor univocal. Policies and competent stakeholders do not suffice to produce effective ecological restoration. Nineteenth century hydraulic engineering approaches are still being implemented. In many cases, objectives focus on security and free flow. There are confusions between river restoration, maintenance and management; 2. Geographic differences about quantity and quality of restoration are obvious but are not fully understood; 3. Inversely, restoration conceptions and practices show little change over the period analysed in the study (1985-2009); 4. Limitations in river restoration assessment are highlighted. There is no feedback on ecological and social gains in most actions. On the Internet, actions have priority over restoration results; 5. The Internet promotes exchanges and work on action and communication strategies in river restoration issues. As such it is particularly valuable in the operational and scientific fields where data sharing is an important factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Ariège department (French Pyrénées), the restructuring of mountain cattle farming and of pastoralism has brought about profound changes in the relations cattle farmers entertain with the high mountain pastureland. Gaining insight into the endogenous meaning of the practices of cattle breeders traditionally using these summer pastures allows the highlighting of the emergence and confrontation of two technical and symbolic bodies of references on the mountain. While the summer pastures remain the organizing and identitary principle for the mountain farmers who are the traditional "users" of the high mountain area, other "non-local" farmers from lower lying areas who practise short distance transhumance view these pastures as one among other economic opportunities. Strong attachment to customary rights, the sole guarantee for people's and animals' legitimacy to use the "high mountain", enables these high mountain farmers, even though a minority, to keep control over the management methods of grazing resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses how farmers take water pollution by nitrates into account. The author proposes a geographical approach to farmer practices aimed at confronting the farmers' values and spatial practices with the spatial delimitations of other actors concerned by a local pollution issue. The research methodology involved surveys of twenty farmers in a French rural area (Yonne department) who were compelled to take a local problem of nitrogen pollution into account in their farming practice. Two spatial entities were combined in studying changes in their practices: the farm and the catchment area. The perception of space by the farmers relates to "the farm lands" and to "individual fields or groups of fields" on their farms. These spatial categories differ from the ones used by agricultural advisers and regulations to circumscribe vulnerable areas and land units. The study of field by field adjustment of nitrogen inputs on wheat shows a diversity of space delimitations among farmers. Mapping these results allows the identification of the spatial adjustments and change of practice imposed by the consideration of pollution risks. In conclusion, these results allow a reflection on the relationships between environmental values and environment-related practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]