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Recherches sur le pastoralisme en France : état des lieux des connaissances et questions vives
No full textANR‐23‐P012‐0009International audienceThis article provides an overview of the current state of knowledge on pastoral systems and territories in France, focusing on the key issues that affect them. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the factors contributing to the decline of pastoralism in a context of intensified production and herd expansion, adaptation to climate change and market fluctuations, and the return of wild predators. Five priority areas for research are identified: animal selection and breeding in pastoral environments; pastoralism as a specific agroecological model, with its strengths and weaknesses; multi‐stakeholder pastoral territories, as spaces for confrontation and development of collective projects; pastoralism occupations and their attractiveness; and data derived from methods for monitoring changes in vegetation, biodiversity, and livestock systems. While not identical, many of these issues are notably similar to those in pastoral contexts in other parts of the world, particularly West Africa.Cette synthèse dresse un état des lieux des connaissances sur les systèmes et territoires pastoraux en France au prisme des principaux enjeux qui les traversent. Le repli pastoral en situation d'intensification de la production et d'agrandissement des troupeaux, l'adaptation au changement climatique et aux fluctuations des marchés, ou encore le retour de prédateurs sauvages sont particulièrement discutés. Cinq champs de recherche prioritaires ont été dégagés : l'animal en milieu pastoral ; le pastoralisme comme modèle d'agroécologie avec ses forces et ses faiblesses ; les territoires pastoraux multi‐acteurs, espaces de confrontation et de projets collectifs ; les métiers du pastoralisme et leur attractivité, les données issues des méthodes de suivi de l’évolution des végétations, de la biodiversité et des systèmes d’élevage. Bien des sujets font écho avec les situations pastorales du reste du monde, notamment en Afrique de l'Ouest, sans pour autant les recouvrir exactement
Democracy and innovative governance in French agricultural cooperatives
No full textInternational audienceIn order to answer this question, the chapter is organized in four parts: first, we expose our theoretical framework; second, we detail the qualitative methodology based on four case studies; third, we analyse these cases; and fourth, we synthetize and conclude. Theoretical framework: democratic and innovative governanceWe based our theoretical framework on the concepts of democracy, governance, and innovation in corporate governance, applied to cooperatives, more particularly in the agricultural sector. In the following pages, we will define and develop these concepts, showing that a few studies deal with them and their interactions, proposing a conceptual framework to deal with drivers of governance innovation in terms of democracy. Democracy and governance: from capitalistic firms to cooperativesCompany is an organization with many faces that has been approached in different ways. From the neoclassical conception, according to which the company was considered as a "black box", to the company seen as a system, it is still difficult to grasp its complex reality (Tosi, 2009). Organization theory studies all types of organizations with very diverse points of view, as underlined by Tosi ( 2009): rational/natural models, closed/open system approaches, and considering single-or double-way relationships between environment and structure.According to Pfeffer (1991), this research field frequently took the individual and its behaviour as the unique unit of analysis and did not really consider social structure as relevant, denying the effects of social and mutual interactions among individuals on the firm's management. On the contrary, for Pfeffer (1991, p 801), "organizations are social settings". Social relations are therefore essential and can influence the firm's performance. Some authors went further and considered organization as an open system model where structure and environment are linked, sometimes following an interactive process, dealing with institutions and ecology, and leading to open system natural models (Tosi, 2009).In this perspective, the pervasive power of shareholders, stressed by Jensen and Meckling (1976), is counterbalanced or, at least, influenced by the open system of interactions between internal and external stakeholders, taking into account the commitment to society of the firm, analysed by the stakeholder theory (ST; Freeman, 1984). Democracy is also more concerned, directly or indirectly, considering the firm as an institution where democracy gains ground thanks to increasing openness, activist shareholders (Gomez, 2001) and citizen requirements (Grandori, 2017). This phenomenon led Andreani (1994, p 184) to state, "it is much more difficult to initiate democracy in a party than in a firm". In fact, behind stakeholder and democratic issues, governance is at the heart of operations.Democratic governance (Cornforth, 2004) concerns the essence of agricultural cooperatives as social economy organizations. Since their origin, they have been
Evaluation of a Plant Disease Surveillance System Using the Animal-Health OASIS Method: Application to Sharka in France
No full textInternational audienceDisease surveillance is a keystone of human, animal, and plant health. It contributes to the prevention and management of epidemics. Over the past two decades, several methodological frameworks have been developed for the evaluation of human and animal health surveillance systems, but such approaches are still lacking in plant health. Here, we aimed at providing one of the first evaluations of a plant pest surveillance system. We applied the semi-quantitative OASIS method, already successfully used for the evaluation of centralized surveillance in animal health, to the French surveillance system of sharka, a viral disease of Prunus trees. A four-member evaluation team conducted semi-directed interviews with 29 professionals covering the different institutions and functions involved in this surveillance system. The evaluation showed that the main strength of the current system is its organization into well-performing regional units that enable adjusting the national surveillance strategy for the application of locally relevant control measures. The main opportunities for improvement were related to system coordination and science-based exploitation of the surveillance data for long-term disease control. We have provided a proof of concept that there is no other obstacle than vocabulary issues to the transposition of the OASIS method to plant diseases, which opens up the possibility to assess other surveillance systems and thus enables to improve their efficiency
Protected areas influence fire regimes globally
No full textInternational audienceProtected areas (PAs) aim to support global conservation efforts including the maintenance of fire regimes and mitigation of negative fire impacts. Analyzing data from over 20 million fires worldwide, we found that PAs, along with the various protection levels defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), significantly influenced burned area (BA) and fire regime attributes across continents and biomes in distinct ways, with varying impacts on fire size, spread, intensity, and duration. In most biomes, the proportion of BA within PAs was smaller than the proportion of PA itself, indicating that PAs were generally less impacted by wildfires. However, in tropical grasslands, tropical dry broadleaf forests and temperate conifer forests, the BA fraction inside PAs was larger. The strictest IUCN protection categories (Ia and Ib) were associated with the lowest BA, compared to National Parks (IUCN II) and other less restrictive protection categories. However, this pattern varied by biome, with mediterranean forests, temperate broadleaf and mixed forests, temperate grasslands and tropical coniferous forests showing increased fire proneness in the strictest IUCN categories and more intense fires. Insights from this research can guide targeted environmental policies to strengthen PA networks to maintain fire regimes
Analysis of oil palm cultivation practices of smallholders in Thailand: environmental sustainability implications
No full textInternational audienceThe rapid expansion of oil palm cultivation in the humid tropics has raised major sustainability concerns. Certification systems, notably the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), aim to promote transparency and accountability in supply chains, yet smallholder participation remains limited, and certification is often driven more by market pressures than environmental objectives. This study evaluates the environmental sustainability of RSPO-certified and non-certified smallholders in Surat Thani Province, Thailand. Results show that certified farmers achieve marginally higher overall sustainability scores, with significant improvement only in soil fertility management through mandatory soil and leaf analyses and frond mulching. These practices are supported by better training access and stronger social networks. No significant differences were observed in water management or agro-biodiversity conservation, which depend mainly on agroecological conditions. The findings suggest that RSPO certification alone does not ensure environmental sustainability. Broader sustainability transitions are driven by market dynamics, government extension, and farmer learning networks. Policies should promote sector-wide sustainability by scaling successful RSPO soil fertility initiatives – public – private partnerships linking mills, universities, and local authorities – and supporting integrated management of soil, water, and biodiversity alongside improved planting material and irrigation access to advance Thailand’s sustainable oil palm transition
Contrasting roles of ground, trees, ponds and grazing in carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide fluxes of an African semi-arid savanna
No full textInternational audienceUnderstanding greenhouse gas fluxes in semi-arid ecosystems is critical for improving our understanding ofbiogeochemical cycles, particularly in underrepresented regions like the African Sahel. In these landscapes,greenhouse gas exchange arises from ground, trees, and water ponds, and is further shaped by environmentalconditions and grazing. The carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide fluxes were quantified from thesecomponents in a Sahelian savanna in Senegal, while also assessing grazing impacts and environmental drivers(soil water content, temperature, vapor pressure deficit, photosynthetically active radiation). The ground was anet carbon dioxide sink during the rainy season but shifted toward neutrality or weak emission in the dry season,consistently acted as a methane sink, and was a year-round nitrous oxide source. Seasonal ponds were strongmethane and nitrous oxide emission hotspots, with methane emissions being high enough to offset the sink of theoverall savanna landscape. Trees contributed to carbon dioxide and methane uptake via branches, whereas stemswere net methane and carbon dioxide emitters. Both stems and branches emitted nitrous oxide, and the presenceof trees enhanced carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide fluxes from soils beneath their canopies. Grazingenhanced ground gross primary production, reduced methane uptake, while no effect was seen on nitrous oxidefluxes. Temporal variability of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide fluxes was strongly linked to soil water contentand temperature, whereas methane fluxes showed no correlations with any of the measured drivers. These resultsdemonstrate that tree- and pond-mediated fluxes, together with grazing, substantially alter the greenhouse gasfluxes of savanna ecosystems and incorporating these effects is essential for accurately representing semi-aridsavannas in global greenhouse gas budgets
Rare interspecific hybridisation between sympatric African four-striped mice, and indications of fine-scale intraspecific spatial structure related to social factors
No full textInternational audienceSpatial and social population structures can influence intra- and interspecific genetic processes. We investigated the spatial and social genetic structure of two sister species and evaluated whether there was evidence of hybridisation between them at a microgeographic scale, in syntopy. Our study models were Rhabdomys bechuanae (Rbech) and Rhabdomys dilectus dilectus (Rdil). We generated population genetic data using microsatellite markers and cross-referenced some of these results with published behavioural data from a prior study, reanalysed here. We compared genetic diversity and gene flow both in sympatry and allopatry, we tested for hybridisation between the sister species in sympatry and assessed the relationship between kinship and fine-scale spatial and social organisation. Genetic diversity was high within all populations of the two species. Population genetic substructure was more pronounced in Rbech than in Rdil, consistent with stronger group cohesion reported for Rbech. STRUCTURE and NEWHYBRIDS analyses suggested that sympatric individuals, 5% in Rbech, and 2% in Rdil, might have hybrid ancestry. Our results indicate social fences may limit gene flow within and between species. Further, limited hybridisation suggests that, despite syntopy, only rare events of hybridisation may occur, possibly at phases of density troughs and/or that F1 hybrids have a relatively low fitness
Conclusion. Travailler autrement en agriculture : formes émergentes et perspectives de recherche
No full textMycochemical Diversity and Therapeutic Potential of Hymenochaetoid Fungi from Central Asia: Regional and Global Perspectives
No full textInternational audienceCentral Asia harbors a rich yet understudied assemblage of wood‐inhabiting Hymenochaetoid fungi. This review delivers the first comprehensive synthesis of 43 poroid species representing 18 genera documented across montane forests, steppes, and xeric habitats. Drawing on literature from 1977 to August 2025, we evaluate their taxonomic diversity, secondary metabolites, and pharmacological activities. Key metabolite classes include polysaccharides (notably β ‐glucans), lanostane‐type triterpenoids, phenolic acids, styrylpyrone derivatives, sterols, and sesquiterpenoids. These compounds display a broad spectrum of bioactivities, including antioxidant, antimicrobial, anticancer, immunomodulatory, anti‐inflammatory, hepatoprotective, and hypoglycemic effects. While globally recognized taxa such as Inonotus obliquus and Phellinus igniarius are well studied, most Central Asian endemics remain poorly characterized, highlighting a substantial untapped reservoir of therapeutic potential. Key challenges include unresolved taxonomy, nonstandardized metabolomic methodologies, limited mechanistic pharmacology, and insufficient ethnomycological and conservation data. To address these gaps, we propose a roadmap integrating multilocus phylogenomics, harmonized metabolomic workflows (LC‐MS/MS, GC–MS, NMR), and targeted in vitro, in vivo, and in silico pharmacological studies, supported by community‐based ethnomycological surveys and IUCN‐aligned conservation strategies. Future progress will require coupling these approaches with advanced omics technologies and AI‐enabled drug discovery to accelerate the translation of fungal metabolites into clinical candidates and nutraceuticals. At the same time, climate‐responsive conservation frameworks are urgently needed to safeguard this unique fungal reservoir. By linking biodiversity with translational pharmacology, this review positions Central Asian Hymenochaetoid fungi as a promising frontier for global natural product discovery and sustainable biotechnological innovation
Uncovering genetic population structure in the Endangered northern rockhopper penguin (Eudyptes moseleyi) across islands in the Southern Atlantic and Indian oceans
No full textInternational audienceBackground: The northern rockhopper penguin (Eudyptes moseleyi) is a threatened species, listed as Endangered globally by the IUCN owing to rapid population decreases in the past, combined with a limited distributional range. Their breeding is confined to five islands in the central South Atlantic Ocean (Gough, Nightingale, Inaccessible, Alex (= Middle), and Tristan da Cunha) and two islands in the southern Indian Ocean (Amsterdam and Saint Paul). Nonbreeding birds forage widely in these oceans and vagrant individuals have been recorded in the Falkland Islands/ Malvinas, South Africa, Kerguelen Archipelago, Australia, and New Zealand. The origins of these vagrant birds are largely unknown, and it remains unclear to what extent northern rockhopper penguins move between islands and oceans. Understanding connectivity between populations is essential for developing appropriate conservation strategies, especially as some populations may be at greater extinction risk than others.Results: Northern rockhopper penguins from the two oceanic basins are genetically distinct, with minimal evidence of migration between ocean basins. No substructure was detected within ocean island groups and although low, the level of migration between islands was sufficient to prevent genetic differentiation. Differential signatures of genetic diversity and inbreeding may also suggest some island populations are at higher risk of inbreeding depression. Conclusions: This study provides the first comprehensive genetic population structure analysis of the entire breeding range of the Endangered northern rockhopper penguin. This gives an unparalleled understanding of the connectivity within and between populations breeding in the Atlantic and Indian oceans, and highlights areas for further investigation. Knowledge of genetic structure and population dynamics can inform effective conservation management by predicting a species’ ability to adapt and remain resilient to local or global threats, including the increasing impacts of climate-driven changes in marine environments. Our results suggest that northern rockhopper penguins should be managed as two conservation management units to maximise the conservation of genetic diversity within the species and allow strategies to be developed that consider the different pressures affecting the populations in each ocean basin