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Le jardin écologique au carrefour des contradictions by Olivier BOUVIALA – Archives du Calvados
The ecological garden at the crossroads of contradictions
What nature do we tolerate in our parks and gardens?
‘The ecological garden at the crossroads of contradictions. The ecologists’, gardeners’ and users’ viewpoint’.
The more towns become dense, the greater the social and environmental value of natural areas. Today, more than ever before, these spaces are the subject to particular attention. Urban planners, landscapers, managers, users, scientists and politicians alike, all have their own vision of what these spaces should be, the services they should provide, and how they should be managed. Everyone has their own view. Everything intermingles. Contradictions and paradoxes emerge. Let’s take an example: the ecological garden. What contradictions are concealed within this term? Or how do we reconcile welcoming the wild and spontaneous in such a tidy and domesticated little world?
Olivier Bouviala
After studying biology and ecology at the faculty of science and techniques in Nantes, Olivier Bouviala was the 2000 winner of the heritage conservation attaché competition in the scientific, technical and natural speciality. He integrated the Hauts-de-Seine Council in 2001, as scientific advisor at the Maison de l’Environnement (environmental centre) then, as a museographer, took charge of exhibitions on the environment and sustainable development. In 2009, he joined the Hauts-de-Seine Council’s directorate for Parks, Gardens and Landscapes, in charge of natural heritage. He is responsible for the monitoring and the development of biodiversity, and of landscaping management plans for different sites, together with obtaining and maintaining the Eve® (Espace Végétal Ecologique – ecological planted area) label, awarded by the Ecocert control agency. In 2013, he won the territorial engineer competition in the urban planning, development and landscape speciality. In 2017, he became head of department on landscape, heritage and environmental studies. The department is in charge, in particular, of the new strategy for natural spaces in the department of Hauts-de-Seine, of administrative environmental obligations, with a societal responsibility towards sustainable development.
Further reading :
PASCAL M., LORVELEC O., VIGNE J-D. , Invasions biologiques et extinctions : 11 000 ans d’histoire des vertébrés en France, Belin, 2006
GROULT J-M., Pour un nouvel exotisme au jardin, Actes Sud, 2013
BLANC N. , CLERGEAU Ph. , Trames vertes urbaines, De la recherche scientifique au projet urbain, Le Moniteur, 2013
COUVET D. , TEYSSEDRE A. , Écologie et biodiversité, Des populations aux socio écosystèmes, Belin, 2010
LABORIT H., La légende des comportements, Flammarion, 1994
W. K. SMITH, M. W. LEWIS, M. L. TUSHMAN, Paradoxes stratégiques, n’accordez pas trop d’importance à la constance, in Harvard Business Review, pp. 50-59, juin-juillet 2017