Conservation of Biodiversity as a European Directive: The Challenge for France

The purpose of the Habitats directive, based explicitly on scientific knowledge, is to preserve biological diversity on a European scale through the conservation of natural habitats and wild fauna and flora. It differs from the standard nature protection policy approaches because of the principles which it espouses: maintaining biodiversity and sustainable development. The use of these notions is clearly not neutral nor without consequences. In exploring the content of the biodiversity concept, this text seeks to demonstrate how it redefined nature. An analysis of the text of the directive reveals its theoretically innovative aspects and the difficulties of applying this new nature policy. While it is clear that there are real difficulties of interpretation which can apply to all the countries involved, the room to manoeuvre and the risks of conflicts vary from country to country because they depend on the particular political culture. Our hypothesis is that biodiversity, as conceived in the directive and the action framework proposed, involves many contradictions which account for the outbursts in political and scientific circles which its application caused in France.