Steps towards protecting France’s biodiversity
Importance of biodiversity
The French National Strategy for Biodiversity (NSB) has been developed to try and halt the decline in the country’s rich biodiversity. The team behind the LIFE BIODIV’FRANCE project are now working to implement the strategy by engaging all sectors of society, with the aim of achieving lasting, sustainable change, as Anne Cazin explains. The landscapes of France are rich in biodiversity, with its mainland and marine ecosystems hosting a wide range of plants and animals, while the country’s overseas territories are home to more than 18,000 known endemic species. However, this diversity is in rapid decline, prompting the development of a National Strategy for Biodiversity (NSB). “The goal of the NSB is to halt the decline in biodiversity by 2030,” says Anne Cazin, of the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB). The ambitious goals set out in the strategy cannot be achieved simply by focusing on protected areas and national parks, rather all parts of society have to be involved and play an active role, believes Cazin. “We also need to pull levers outside protected areas. At OFB we work with businesses, economic actors and local authorities to try and halt the decline in biodiversity,” she explains. Diagram detailing the LIFE BIODIV’FRANCE project.
LIFE BIODIV’FRANCE project This issue is central to Cazin’s work as part of the team behind the LIFE BIODIV’FRANCE project, an EU-backed initiative which aims to implement the NSB and encourage change across all sectors of French society. While it is led by OFB, the project brings together 30 participating organisations overall, working on a variety of issues around the common goal of protecting biodiversity. “We’re working with different organisations, including wildlife protection agencies, regional authorities and
NGOs,” outlines Cazin. The focus is on working with organisations and businesses at both the national and regional level to make sure that protecting biodiversity is a prime consideration in their daily operations, with the project team providing advice and support to stakeholders. The project is structured around five thematic pillars; • Providing support to local areas; • Strengthening the effectiveness of
protected areas in terms of protecting habitats and species; • Providing support to economic sectors and making sure that protecting biodiversity is an important consideration when decisions are made; • Mobilising citizens and encouraging them to get involved in conserving nature; • Developing skills among stakeholders, so that they can continue to protect and conserve biodiversity in future.
The starting point here is to highlight the importance of biodiversity to our own lives, the extent to which medicines, crops, materials and other essential products depend on preserving ecosystems and maintaining a balance between different species. This will underline the urgency of protecting biodiversity and generate momentum that can then be carried forward. “We want to bring home the fact that biodiversity is important for our health, for our food supply, and a whole host of other issues, including climate change. We then aim to encourage change in different economic sectors, for example in agriculture,” outlines Cazin. For instance, a major supermarket may want to reassure consumers that their products have been produced in an environmentally responsible way, from farmers working on the land all the way through to the transport companies that bring it to the shelves. Major stakeholders have a big influence in this respect, so Cazin and her colleagues are looking to work with them and highlight the importance of biodiversity to their operations. “We aim to find the right stakeholders, the ones that will have a big impact,” she continues. Individual citizens can also have an impact, and with public awareness of biodiversity concerns growing, Cazin says many people want to get involved and take practical action. The project aims at guiding them towards the most effective actions. This might not necessarily mean planting a tree, as in some cases less tangible acts can have a more significant impact, like reducing resource use or not planting exotic plants ill-suited to the local ecology. Protecting biodiversity almost always involves reducing the pressure, and not necessarily doing something; the goal here is to help build a clearer picture.
Organisation of a collective Community Service Project by the Loir-et-Cher Conservatory of Natural Areas, in October 2025.
A further dimension of the project’s work centres around strengthening the effectiveness of protected areas as havens for wildlife, places where biodiversity can thrive. Regular monitoring and evaluation is
“We want to bring home the fact that biodiversity is important for our health, for our food and water supply, and a whole host of other issues, including climate change. We then aim to encourage change in different economic sectors, for example in agriculture.” essential to maintaining the status of these areas, and ensuring that conditions are right for protected habitats and species, in line with the goals set out in the NSB. At the same time, the project team is also working to develop partnership networks, so that lessons learned in one area can then be applied in another, supporting managers and helping them protect biodiversity. This is very much a long-term goal, so a key pillar of the project’s work is to develop biodiversity-related skills among stakeholders, part of the aim of achieving Field visit to a winner of the “Prairies et Parcours” Agro-ecological Practices Competition, June 2025.
Livestock belonging to a winner of the Agro-ecological Practices Competition ‘Grasslands and Pastures’, June 2025.
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lasting, sustained improvements. By promoting skills development and raising the profile of biodiversity issues in those economic sectors which affect it, the project team aims to help achieve long-term change, beyond the
conclusion of LIFE BIODIV’FRANCE. The project is still at a relatively early stage however, so the initial aim is to heighten awareness, then move to a point where there is a clearer relationship between actions and their effects. “We’re going to conduct surveys at different points in the project, and monitor progress towards the targets in the NSB,” says Cazin.
Importance of biodiversity The wider aim here is to highlight the societal importance of biodiversity, which is sometimes neglected in comparison to other environmental concerns, such as pollution and climate change. Biodiversity is essential to our food supply, our water quality and our way of life more generally, a message that Cazin and her colleagues are working to promote. “We want biodiversity to be a prominent consideration in everybody’s daily lives, including economic stakeholders, citizens, and locally elected officials,” she continues. A heightened level of awareness can then be translated into practical, targeted action, which will boost the prospect of protecting and restoring biodiversity over the long-term. “This work won’t stop after the end of LIFE BIODIV’FRANCE in 2032, and at OFB we will continue to communicate with stakeholders and support them,” says Cazin.
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