Charles Claron – Incorporating land values into French land governance

Faced with environmental degradation on an unprecedented global scale, soils are emerging as a focus of scientific, public and political concern. Described as ‘the Earth’s living skin’, they are valued for their many contributions to the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems and human societies. In France, the ‘Climate and Resilience’ Act (2021) recognises these ecological functions, but this conception contrasts with the view of land as a fragmented and exploitable surface promoted by the land tenure system. To shed light on this tension within the social institution of land, this thesis examines the integration of land values into French land governance. Adopting an ecological socio-economic perspective, it explores how these values are reconciled within the legal standards, economic models and social practices that shape spatial planning.

Part One presents the scientific and theoretical approach of the thesis, which combines three elements: the framework of institutional resource regimes, the analytical model of property as a ‘bundle of rights’, and a pluralist approach to the values of nature and land. Land governance thus emerges as a process of negotiating institutional regimes and arrangements that shape the use and appropriation of land. Part Two examines these negotiations in three contrasting territorial contexts: land initiatives to support pastoralism at the UNESCO site of the Causses and Cévennes (Chapter 4), the establishment of two national nature reserves in the Hérault (Chapter 5), and an urban planning dispute in Besançon (Chapter 6). Part Three analyses the macro-institutional transformations brought about by the ‘Climate and Resilience’ Act and its objective of zero net land take (ZAN). The ZAN scheme is examined as a land-take quota trading system (Chapter 7), whilst Chapter 8 studies the emergence of an economic sector dedicated to land renaturation.

From a theoretical and methodological perspective, this thesis highlights the value of an interdisciplinary and pluralist approach to the relationship between land and society. The concept of a ‘regime of valorisation’ operationalises this vision by linking the analysis of processes of valorisation and appropriation, whilst the ‘matrix of rights bundles’ sheds light on the construction of land tenure arrangements and the territorialisation of regimes of valorisation. Empirically, the study shows that land has always been a discreet actor in the transformations of land governance. Established in the 18th century on the basis of an absolute, exclusive and individual conception of property, the French land tenure system has gradually incorporated collective values associated, often implicitly, with the functions of land. In the areas studied, this stratification gives rise to conflicts and negotiations between heterogeneous values. They sometimes result in territorial compromises that redefine relationships of ownership through a process of communalisation, characterised by the inclusion of a greater diversity of stakeholders in the use, decision-making or political control of land. Land thus emerges as a hybrid asset: both a vehicle for private rights and the hub of a network of collective interests, giving rise to pluralistic governance. In this context, the current focus on soil health (or quality) helps to clarify the pedological dimension of land relations and opens up the prospect of governing land as a common good. This could be based on a relational conception of land ownership: no longer an exclusive right to the land, but a set of interdependent relationships operating at different levels and involving shared responsibilities.

Members of the jury

• Franck-Dominique Vivien, Professor, University of Reims (Chair)
• Hélène Rey-Valette, Senior Lecturer, University of Montpellier (Rapporteur)
• Jean-David Gerber, Associate Professor, University of Bern (Rapporteur)
• Nathalie Blanc, Research Director, CNRS (Examiner)
• Maylis Desrousseaux, Senior Lecturer, Paris School of Urban Planning (Examiner)
• Olivier Coutard, Research Director, CNRS (Co-supervisor)
• Harold Levrel, Professor, National Museum of Natural History (Co-supervisor)
• Philippe Billet, Professor, University of Lyon 3 (Co-supervisor)