Species-based or ecosystem-based approaches to conservation pratices: Lessons from the Port-Cros National Park (south-east France, Mediterranean Sea).

For almost 60 years, the management policy of the Port-Cros National Park (PCNP) has steadily progressed, in phase with human impacts, changes in doctrines and goals in the field of nature conservation, what was socially acceptable at a given time, a very active Scientific Council and a gradual shift from species-centered to ecosystem-based management. Here, we illustrate problems faced by a national park, together with responses or practices that are suited, or not, to an ecosystem-based approach. PCNP’s doctrine has been to explain that the abundance of species fluctuates naturally, and that we must not be too hasty to intervene, that nature sometimes does things better than humans, that a national park is neither a zoo nor a botanical garden, and the purpose is not to artificially increase the species diversity. The management approach of the PCNP can constitute a source of lessons for nature protection and management.