Les Causses et les Cevennes

Causses et les Cévennes, paysage culturel de l'agro-pastoralism méditerranéen ( German : The Causses and the Cevennes, cultural landscape of the Mediterranean Agropastoralismus ) is an area in the south of France , which since 2011 under this name as a World Heritage Site of UNESCO is registered. The cultural landscape consists of parts of the Cevennes Mountains and includes the eastern part of the Causses , which are limestone plateaus. The core area covers an area of ​​3023 km² in the departments of Aveyron , Gard , Lozère and, to a lesser extent, in the department of Hérault and partly overlaps with the Cevennes National Park . The agropastoral (combining agriculture and livestock farming) use of the barren soil is considered to be culturally significant .

Geography and culture

Overview map; the core zone is shown in light green, the outer zone in dark green. In orange the borders of the Cevennes National Park, in blue those of the Grandes Causses Nature Park

Sheep grazing on the Causse Méjean

Menhir on the Causse de Blandas plateau

The 3023 km² core area of ​​the world cultural heritage includes an extremely sparsely populated mountain region, the soil of which is hardly suitable for classic forms of agriculture. It does not include any cities - Florac and Lasalle as the largest towns have around 2000 and 1000 inhabitants respectively - and agriculture plays a relatively minor role, but includes a large number of small towns and is characterized in particular by sheep breeding . In terms of landscape, it is a low mountain range , which is traversed by deep gorges along river valleys and also includes the limestone plateaus of the Causses. Ultimately, the Cevennes represent the southernmost part of the Massif Central . The rivers include the Tarn and Vis . Well-known mountains are the Mont Lozère and the Mont Aigoual . The core area is supplemented by the 3124 km² outer zone, which also includes medium-sized and small towns such as Alès , Millau , Mende and Le Vigan . The A75 autoroute crosses both the core and the outer zone .

Forms of agropastoralism have been documented for the region for three millennia, with sheep breeding being of particular importance. Nowadays, the use of sheep's milk for the production of Roquefort is in the foreground. Non-intensive forms of agriculture are particularly encouraged. The exact forms of land use can be divided into agropastoralism (agriculture and cattle breeding) and an increased reference to cattle breeding, the latter can still be separated into sedentary and not completely sedentary forms. In the region around Mont Lozère in particular, the semi-sedentary form of transhumance continued into the 21st century ; Shepherds wander with their flocks of sheep between different pastures in a seasonal rhythm.

Admission to the world cultural heritage

The Cevennes National Park was established in 1970 and in 1985 the region was included in the Man and the Biosphere Program of UNESCO. It was accepted into the world cultural heritage on June 28, 2011. Criteria III and V were of central importance. The third criterion requires the presentation of an exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition. Accordingly, the Causses and the Cevennes stand in a special way for the forms of farming of agropastoralism, which are at least historically very widespread in the Mediterranean . This tradition has been well preserved in this particular region and has been further promoted in recent decades. In addition, there is the fifth criterion, according to which it must be an excellent example of a form of human settlement, land or sea use. The UNESCO committee referred to agropaternalism as a special form of land use with a formative effect on the landscape. On April 11, 2012, the four participating departments Aveyron, Gard, Lozère and Hérault founded a working group called Entente Interdépartementale Causses & Cévennes , which is to deal with, among other things, the preservation and external representation of the world cultural heritage.

Web links

Commons : Les Causses, les Cévennes  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Causses et Cévennes World Heritage site

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} The Causses and the Cévennes, Mediterranean agro-pastoral Cultural Landscape , whc.unesco.org
2. ↑ ^{a b} Unesco includes Causses and Cevennes in the World Heritage ( Memento of the original from June 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , ambafrance-de.org 
3. ↑ Entente Interdépartementale Causses & Cévennes , causses-et-cevennes.fr