A regional planning for protected areas of sustainable development in the mercantour and maritime alps

Abstract

The strategic planning has a growing relevance in the national and international context of territorial development and has been for a long time the center of a lively technical-professional, scientific, and cultural debate. In this context, the design of the future of the territories is the path that all local authorities should set out, using the valuable contribution of scholars, social workers, professionals, and all those who feel they can contribute to territorial development. The experience presented here is a management plan of a Site of Community Importance (SCI), located in the Mercantour and Maritime Alps protected area. The management plan of this SCI is a super-local tool called to meet the needs of an area as a whole, crossing the concept of the administrative border, even national, to direct the management decisions to the pursuit of a common goal. Its drafting has been made possible thanks to the contribution of many experts in different fields and to the involvement of local stakeholders, with the goal to ensure the preservation of the structure and function of the habitats and the long-term conservation of the species, while taking into due consideration the socioeconomic factors and values.