A BIODIVERSITY PROGRAM FOR GOLF COURSES - A national study program to improve the knowledge about biodiversity, its conservation, fostering its establishement on French golf courses

In France, the total surface occupied by golf courses is of 30 000 ha. On most of golf courses, playing areas represent about 1/2 of the total surface. The remaining areas are usually natural ones such as meadows, ponds, hedges, etc. Golf courses can thus host a wide range of unrecognized and therefore underestimated biodiversity. Since 2016, the French Golf Federation (ffgolf) and the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN) have entered a partnership. One of the objectives of such a collaboration is to design a methodological support to develop a database and a tool to assess and monitor biodiversity at golf course scale: The Biodiversity Program on French golf courses was born. The objectives of this program are to assess the ecological issues on golf courses at a national scale, to improve the knowledge, the management and the conservation of biodiversity on golf courses. 1) Develop and share knowledge relating to nature and increase awareness about the natural heritage in order to foster its value. 2) Promote the conservation of biodiversity on golfing areas, improving its integration and developing hosting areas. 3) Raise awareness for ecological issues. 4) Build constructive partnerships at a local scale with biodiversity stakeholders. Through 3 progressive levels, the Program, a voluntary approach, helps golf courses to take into account biodiversity. The Program coordinates the implementation of naturalist studies, with the support of local naturalist bodies. All naturalist standardized data are integrated into the French natural heritage data platform (INPN: https://inpn.mnhn.fr). Ecological issues are identified and put in perspective with golf courses' management teams who are encouraged to improve their practices applying the recommendations. The Program has already been tested with success on 4 different golf courses. 2017 has been the ‘pilot’ year of the Biodiversity Program for Golf courses. 2018 is the official kick-off year of the Program and we present the first results. We are already considering to develop a similar Program for French Overseas Territories with a deployment to foreign countries and many other sports federations.peerReviewe