From Common Property to Co-Management: Implementing Natura 2000

FROM COMMON PROPERTY TO CO-MANAGEMENT: IMPLEMENTING NATURA 2000 IN SOULE by MEREDITH WELCH-DEVINE (Under the Direction of Theodore Gragson) 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 not violate those boundaries they operate with relative autonomy. Recent years, though, have seen both the French state and the European Union take a more active interest in commons management. At the same time, biodiversity conservation has arisen as a chief concern of the international community and of EU policy-makers. In 1992, the European Commission passed the Habitats Directive, which, together with the Birds Directive, creates a pan-European network of areas to be managed for social, economic, and ecological sustainability. This network, called Natura 2000, is made up of conservation sites on both public and private lands, and the common lands of Soule are covered almost in their entirety by Natura 2000 sites. The implementation of Natura 2000 is pushing the current system toward one of co- management between resource users, state agencies, and other stakeholders yet to be identified. This dissertation research examines the co-management process that is slowly emerging and compares it to the existing management regime. I discuss how relations between Basques and the French state combine with features of the implementation process to create resistance. I then examine the major themes of resistance and their origins, and explore the particularities that must be considered when moving from common property to co-management. This research not only involved Basque farmers, but also regional, national, and supra- national authority figures, government technicians, and NGO representatives. As a result, it provides a more complete and clear picture of the implementation process and affords the opportunity to examine how different actors across the scale of implementation define and judge success in conservation policy-implementation. INDEX WORDS: Natura 2000, conservation, common-pool resources, common property management system, co-management, Basque, transhumance, network analysis, success FROM COMMON PROPERTY TO CO-MANAGEMENT: IMPLEMENTING NATURA 2000 IN SOULE by MEREDITH WELCH-DEVINE BA, Washington and Lee University, 2000 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2008 © 2008 Meredith Welch-Devine All Rights Reserved FROM COMMON PROPERTY TO CO-MANAGEMENT: IMPLEMENTING NATURA 2000 IN SOULE by MEREDITH WELCH-DEVINE Major Professor: Theodore Gragson Committee: J. Peter Brosius Philippe Chareyre Laurie Fowler Ervan Garrison Andrew Herod Abel Kouvouama Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August 2008 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am deeply grateful to both Ted Gragson and Pete Brosius for their support, advice, and patience throughout my graduate career. I appreciate Ted’s willingness to read (seemingly) endless drafts of proposals and chapters and to turn them around so quickly! His insight has vastly improved this dissertation. Pete’s point of view on the research and data pushed me to broaden my thinking and to dig into the complexity of the situation, again vastly improving my work. I would also like to thank my remaining dissertation committee members, Erv Garrison, Andy Herod, and Laurie Fowler. Dr. G encouraged and helped facilitate my European focus, Andy introduced me to and helped me think about scale, and Laurie helped me think about law and policy. This research was carried out under a co-tutelle agreement with the Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour. I would like to thank Abel Kouvouama, Philippe Chareyre, Pascal Palu, Dolorès deBortoli, and Marie-Paul Lavergne of the Identités et Territoires des Élites Méridionales (EA 3002) lab, as well as Dominique Cunchinabe, for lab and computing resources and for their extremely valuable help navigating the move to France and French administrative requirements. All of them aided in defining my research, and I could not have found a better person to introduce me to Soule and its people than Dominique. Of course, I am heavily indebted to the people of Soule themselves. I was continually impressed by their generosity and willingness to share their stories, and both my husband and I made many lasting friendships along the way. So many Souletines contributed to and improved my research and made it very difficult for us to leave. I would like to thank all of those who iv welcomed me into their homes and took the time to talk with me and all the people of Altzürükü, who made us feel as though their village were our own. To name them all would take much more room than I have, so I will have to settle for naming only a few families and hoping that the rest will forgive me and know that I am grateful nonetheless. In Altzürükü: Abehea, Ahanzeta Ahanzola, Arxia, Atxin, Etxartia, Etxebestia, Erregea, Igay-Carrique, Jaragohen, Lapistoi, Mendiburu/Zubukot, Puxuluborda; in Barkoxe: Francis Suhit; in Irabarne: Agueragaïa; in Urdinarbe: Oihanondo; in Gamere-Zihiga: Apolloboro. I would also like to thank, in particular, the mayors and secretaries of Altzürükü and Larraine for entertaining my questions on many occasions, the mayors and staff of Hauze, Ligi-Atherei, Santa Grazi, Urdinarbe, et Altzai for access to documents, the staff of the Syndicate of Soule and the Centre Ovin, and the oh-so- patient and skilled teachers and staff of AEK. Eskerrik hanitx! I would also like to acknowledge the generous help I received in many state agencies and from many elected officials. I will not name them by name as many of them spoke to me only “off the record,” but I hope they will know who they are. The service environnementale of the Prefecture of Pyrénées-Atlantiques was indispensable, as was the sub-Prefecture of Oloron. The service environnementale of the Conseil General was also quite helpful. The staff of DDAF and of the DIREN branches in both Pau and Bordeaux were all very generous with their time and documentation, as were both the Chamber of Agriculture in Pau and Laborantxa Ganbara. The Direction Nature et Paysages, the agency of the French Ministry of Ecology charged with implementing Natura 2000, provided much documentation and great insight into the process. In Brussels, many staff members of the DG Environment were exceedingly helpful. The greatest thanks, though, must go to the ONF office in Mauléon, the staff of which has continued to respond promptly, thoroughly, and kindly to my queries even after my departure from the region. v I would also like to thank both Senator Althapé and Deputy Lassalle. Senator Althapé provided quite a bit of documentation and was extremely gracious about finding time to meet with me. I am particularly grateful for the help and support of the anthropology faculty and staff. Margie and LaBau, and later, Jill and Lisa, made my entire graduate career go much more smoothly by pre-empting problems and solving those that did arise. Thanks also to the anthrograds – it has been so fun hanging out with you guys for the past six years! And KJ, could not have made it without you! Finally, I would like to thank my family for their unwavering support and encouragement and for always being there for me. Thanks are also due my mother-in-law, who called frequently to enquire as to my progress and to promise me I really would finish someday. Most of all, I would like to thank John, for being a good sport and moving to a tiny village halfway across the world, for copy editing, for GIS help, and for constant love and encouragement. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Dissertation Improvement Grant No. 0550154 and under the Coweeta Long-Term Ecological Research program, Grant No. DEB-0218001. I am also grateful to the Department of Anthropology for supplying travel funding, to the ITEM lab at the Université de Pau for covering travel expenses in-country and providing laboratory space and resources, and to the Graduate School of the University of Georgia for providing a Dissertation Completion Assistantship that funded the write-up of the dissertation. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES......................................................................................................................... xi LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1 Natura 2000 ...............................................................................................................2 Justification of Research Site ....................................................................................5 Theoretical Framework .............................................................................................6

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