And now, it’s time for an example where focus has been intentionally put on the process as much as on the results, with the aim of creating a long-term impact.
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LIFE project Natur’Adapt’s goal was to bring climate change adaptation to the management of protected areas in France, then in Europe.
It originated with a storm, which had devastating consequences in West France, including on several protected areas which were submerged. In 2015, the organisation in charge of damaged protected areas (LPO) and the head of nature reserves network in France (RNF) started discussing how to take climate change into account in protected areas management. They started discussing with other partners and decided to develop a proposal for a LIFE project, which got accepted after a bit of negotiation with the funders.
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This short description of how the project originated is important, because it is already a collective process, that continued during the project itself. The emergence process has already seen several stages of translations, from the identified need to the foreseen solution, especially when it came to negotiating a concept and a partnership, and an institutional translation when writing a proposal that would meet the requirements of the LIFE programme.
During these preliminary stages, several groups were identified, represented in concentric circles around the project coordinator.
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The 3 first circles are beneficiaries of the LIFE project. The next ones are circles that the consortium needs to progressively incorporate in their group dynamics and culture production process over the 5 years of the projects and beyond (they are the future network).
The Natur’Adapt proposal was based on two hypotheses:
- We cannot learn how to implement adaptative management in protected areas if we don’t start by being adaptative within our own project: the consortium decided to invest in training in adaptative management, as opposed to planned management (plan for 10 years, relying on a lot of data…)
- Initiating a change in the management culture of protected areas can be achieved through interactions, progressively building a community for adaptative management of protected areas that relies on collective learnings and individual journey.
Natur’Adapt long term goal was having 80% of protected areas managers in France applying adaptative management principles within 10 years after the start of the project. When the project started, a new process of translation started to take place: from the “project on paper” to its implementation in practice, and building a common vision of what the consortium is trying to achieve. The kick-off meeting was intentionally designed to catalyse this translation, with ad-hoc agenda and facilitation.
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The LIFE programme was the framing device used to make these stakeholders collaborate. Formally, as any project, it had partners, milestones and deliverables. In practice, experimenting with adaptative management within the frame of a LIFE project (very much planned) created a tension between a learning by doing approach and the necessity to comply with the proposal. This resulted in frequent self-questioning from the partners and lot of awareness of the process and the decisions made throughout the project.
To support the partners through this, 2 sociologists worked on the project throughout its duration. Their mission? Measure the changes in mindset and practices, as well as supporting the learning process.
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