More than 100 years of protected areas experience (with the Fontainebleau Forest being the first protected area in France, in 1861) added to the variety of French protected areas and mechanisms present interesting assets to enhance the connection between protected areas and their inhabitants, in view of the 2030 horizon and the 2050 vision. Managers of protected areas in France’s continental and overseas territories hold an important valuable expertise which remains insufficiently mobilized beyond their jurisdiction and could genuinely benefit protected areas managers across the world. NatureXpairs, the French Hub for Protected Areas and People aims to make their expertise available and easily accessible for international cooperation projects.

We are experiencing an unprecedented biodiversity crisis interlinked to the climate crisis. Concrete and urgent actions are required to protect nature, on which our future depends. French protected areas managers are determined to take further action, and are mobilizing their expertise in international cooperation projects, to achieve the world’s ambitions for biodiversity at the global, the national or subnational levels.

NatureXpairs, the French Hub for Protected Areas and People seeks to mobilize the expertise of managers of French protected areas in international cooperation projects, based on peer-to-peer exchanges and resulting in mutual benefits, to help achieve the objectives of the KM-GBF.

The project aims at gathering all French protected areas managers willing to share their expertise at the international level and mobilizes a wide array of stakeholders involved in protected areas creation and management.

This unique offer of protected areas managers experiences is becoming a reference point of contact to all stakeholders seeking international expertise in the creation and management of protected areas: managers, State institutions, development agencies, local authorities, research institutes, consultancies, NGOs, etc.

Given the current biodiversity crisis, we are convinced that peer-to-peer exchanges are a necessity, bringing mutual benefits and concrete results to fast-track biodiversity protection in the field. We encourage and support French protected areas managers to embark on international cooperation projects, to share their decades of experience of protected areas where mankind and nature cohabit. We wish to learn from other practitioners, insight to create links between nature and people, for a protected and healthy planet.

NatureXpairs, the French Hub for Protected Areas and People is led by the four main networks of protected areas in France: Réserves Naturelles de France, Fédération des Parcs Naturels Régionaux de France, Fédération des Conservatoires d’Espaces Naturels and French National Parks.

Our team is based in Dijon, France at the headquarter of one of the French protected areas network (Réserves Naturelles de France is hosting the project). The protected areas managers who are offering to share their expertise through NatureXpairs, the French Hub for Protected Areas and People are based all over mainland France and its overseas.

Our team is composed of 2 people.

Emmanuelle Sarat, who is the project manager. She handles the day-to-day implementation of the project and serves as a liaison between the project funders, the funding bodies, and the different partners seeking for technical assistance.

Aurélie Chane-Yook, who is the project officer for the French HAC N&P group. Aurélie is in charge of the facilitation of the working group, identifies and makes the French expertise on protected areas available, and moderates the community of cooperating managers.

The team relies on inter-network members to review solicitations, identify expertise and implement the project’s governance. A steering committee brings together the project’s founding members to share ideas and issues, and define common positions. A follow-up committee, comprising founding members and funding bodies, reviews the progress and actual implementation of the project’s program. A solicitation review committee determines the project’s suitability for responding positively to opportunities, and identifies the relevant protected areas managers to be mobilized in response.

• NatureXpairs, the French Hub for Protected Areas and People is supported by four main French institutions:
• The French Ministry of Ecological Transition
• The French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs
• The Agence Française de Développement (AFD)
• The French Biodiversity Agency (OFB)

NatureXpairs, the French Hub for Protected Areas and People is facilitating the French working group on Target 3 led by the French Ministry of Ecological Transition and the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, with the assistance of the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB).

This working group aims to identify, structure and make French expertise available on protected areas to HAC N&P members, in order to improve capacities and develop new approaches to conservation, governance and management on a global scale. This work will feed directly into the 30×30 Technical Assistance Matchmaking Platform.

You can send an email to Emmanuelle Sarat, the project manager. We will be happy to provide answers to any of your questions or requests.