Diversity of property regimes of Mediterranean coastal lagoons in S. France; implications for coastal zone management

Abstract

We provide a cartography of the current property regimes of permanent coastal lagoons along the coastlines of the Mediterranean Sea for continental France and Corsica, which include both private and public properties. In France, for the latter, the State Domain Code and the General Code of the property of public persons make a clear difference between Public Domain and private property of the different public entities. Public domain represents property that is imprescriptible and inalienable, i.e. the property rights cannot be changed in the future and neither transferred nor sold to somebody else. In contrast, private properties of public entities can be sold or transferred to thirds. Maritime Public Domain (DPM) was created since 1681. DPM has accommodated Public Domain for the French coastal lagoons following their legal definition as "salty ponds (French étangs salés) with a direct, natural and permanent connection with the sea". However, private landlords battled juridically with the State for centuries both by attacking the pertinence of this definition and claiming ancestral property rights. As a result, before 1980, more than half of the coastal lagoons comprised private properties, representing about a quarter of the lagoon surface. Twelve of 40 coastal lagoons comprise DPM, mainly the larger lagoons (e.g., Salses-Leucate, many lagoons close to Narbonne, Thau lagoon, Berre lagoon), representing 65% of the total lagoon surface. Since its foundation in 1975, the Conservatoire du Littoral, a public body in charge of coastal nature protection, has bought private coastal lagoons properties in twenty of 40 lagoons, representing 22% of the total lagoon surface. These have been designated as inalienable and imprescriptible "Public Domain of the Conservatoire", safeguarded for nature conservation purposes. Nowadays, private ownership still persists in 13 lagoons representing 3.3% of total surface. The Coastal lagoons in Roussillon (Etangs du Canet and Salses-Leucate), the Hérault department, in the Camargue and in Corsica currently show variable and sometimes fragmented ownership (in addition to the Conservatoire, DPM, private ownership, municipalities, departments). Fragmented ownership is a clear difficulty for the integrated management of coastal lagoons. With currently, 87% of the coastal lagoons as Public Domain, public law and the environmental code have to evolve to tackle the challenges for the conservation and management of coastal lagoons and their connectivity with the other ecosystems on land and in the sea.Please note that this is an author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available on the publisher Web site.

Small Mediterranean coastal Lagoons Under Threat: Hydro-ecological Disturbances and Local Anthropogenic Pressures (Size Matters)

“…All three lagoons in this study are subject to protection status (Natura 2000 sites), but the deployment of actual management plans and actions is still in its initial phase. Despite the accumulation of protection statuses and labels, the application of efficient management can be problematic due to complex property regimes (De Wit et al 2021;OEC 2022). The fragmentation of properties and their private status imply dispersed and disconnected management that can therefore prove difficult to implement or ineffective, as is the case notably for Balistra lagoon (Pérez-Ruzafa et al 2020;De Wit et al 2021).…”

“…Despite the accumulation of protection statuses and labels, the application of efficient management can be problematic due to complex property regimes (De Wit et al 2021;OEC 2022). The fragmentation of properties and their private status imply dispersed and disconnected management that can therefore prove difficult to implement or ineffective, as is the case notably for Balistra lagoon (Pérez-Ruzafa et al 2020;De Wit et al 2021). Meanwhile, efforts already undertaken by some public institutions, such as the CdL, to acquire Corsican lagoons should be carried on to centralise ownership and management and guarantee the prevention of habitat destruction by the uncontrolled progression of urban and tourism development (De Wit et al 2021).…”

Mediterranean Temporary Lagoon: Proposal for a definition of this endangered habitat to improve its conservation

“…Second, the French Mediterranean application of the WFD restrains water bodies' classification as water bodies larger than 50 ha (De Wit et al, 2020), as applied in Polish Lakes (Kolada et al, 2005). The area of most permanent coastal lagoon complexes in the south of France exceeds that threshold, but some permanent coastal lagoons are excluded from this institutional definition, such as "l'étang du Doul'' (37 ha) and in Corsica "l'étang du Terenzana" (36 ha) and "l'étang de Balistra" (30 ha) (De Wit et al, 2021). In contrast, temporary water bodies rarely reach such an area.…”

Long-term ecological trajectories of a disturbed Mediterranean coastal lagoon (Biguglia lagoon): Ecosystem-based approach and considering its resilience for conservation?

“…These institutional problems result in a dispersed and diluted management, where the expertise and global view of Natural Reserve actors are set aside. The fragmentation of management does not allow a coherent approach (De Wit et al, 2021); hence, to ameliorate and make effectively efficient management actions, we believe that stronger concertation between different actors should be foreseen, in order to centralize decisional power and coordinate actions in accordance with the global expected or desired vision of the system that can be provided by manager institution.…”