Quelle place pour les résidences secondaires dans le fonctionnement des territoires touristiques ? Études de cas en Vicdessos et en Cerdagne

National audienc

Sustainability of a mountain tourist system. Lessons from the case of a Pyrenean valley under economic reconversion (Vicdessos, Ariège, french Pyrenees - OHM du Haut-Vicdessos)

International audienc

Récréation et Habitabilité récréative (Ch 4)

International audienc

What place for pastoral activities in the economic transformation of Vicdessos (Ariège Pyrénées) ?

Once a major part of life in the mountain landscapes of Vicdessos (Ariege, southwestern France), pastoral activities were marginalized when industries brought full employment to the area. The "Pechiney era" (1906-2003) was characterized by the return of fallow lands and forests on the slopes and on some valley floors. Now that this small territory is engaged in a voluntary conversion oriented towards outdoor recreational activities (Montcahn nature-sports centre), the twenty or so livestock farms still in operation seem to be the best guarantors of the landscape resource on which tourist attraction depends (village surroundings, high mountain pastures). The creation of Pastoral Land Associations around some villages reflects the awareness of this issue by elected officials, and has led to permissions for the expansion of some farms and the creation of new ones. Even though the amount of livestock is sometimes insufficient to prevent the return of brush and trees to pastures and even though the farms, some of them in economically precarious states, do not visibly take part in the new tourism system, these livestock farmers are gaining recognition for their role as landscape managers. In addition, the increased direct sales of their products and the events they organize to enlighten people of their activities (fairs, transhumance celebrations) highlight their role material as well as symbolic in the territory's development. However, the issue of modalities of access to grazing lands remains crucial for this pastoral renewal, which will, in any case, have to depend on innovations (diversification of livestock, short food-supply chains, agrotourism), especially when many older livestock farmers will soon retire

Permanences et processus lents dans un système territorial en transition : éléments de résultats du programme Systerpa

National audienc

Coviability of social and ecological systems : reconnecting mankind to the biosphere in an era of global change. Vol. 2 : Coviability questioned by a diversity of situations

The notion of coviability, which highlights the interdependence that exists between every system and its environment, is applied here to tourism systems at a territorial scale (territorialized tourism systems, TTS). TTS correspond to territorial systems whose dominant feature is touristic or recreational (which raises the question of their degree of specialization). Such systems can be described as articulated around a core system that is itself structured around tourism activities, in close interaction with an encompassing tourism system at a different scale (region, state, world, etc.), as well as with an intra-territorial environment conditioned by geophysical and ecological processes, on the one hand, and by other socio-spatial functions (agriculture, livestock farming, industry, residentiality, etc.), on the other. Since it is a medium of interpretation of the territory, a TTS does not directly include the totality of the territory's features, and it should not be confused with the sole sub-system of tourism activities in the strictest sense of the term. The question of its viability leads us to explore a dual form of coviability, which is both intra-territorial (having a potential for synergy and coherence of relationships with other sub-systems identifiable within the territory), and extra-territorial (dependence on the touristic meta-system and on fluctuations in its environment). Numerous case studies linked to ongoing research, mainly concerning mountain areas, are taken to illustrate this dual coviability and explain the factors that influence the time lags between the changes in tourist modalities and those of other territorial modalities