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Warning: most of
the website links are in French
 An
amazing natural heritage...
France has indeed an exceptional natural
heritage and has taken measures in order to preserve it. On
the whole national territory, in 2006, there are 310 natural
reserves, including 147 national reserves, 157 regional
and 6 natural reserves of Corse, 9 national
parks, 45 regional
parks, 10 biosphere
reserves classified by UNESCO, and thousands of classified
sites under French Law. The French coast is also protected,
in theory, by the littoral law which allows the
conservatory of the littoral to carry out a land ownership
policy aiming to definitively preserve natural areas and landscapes
of the seashores. In 2006, the conservatory of the littoral
represents 100 000 hectares, 400 natural protected areas,
880 km of shorelines, with 15 millions visitors a year on
the conservatory sites.
…Threaten
by mass tourism
With more than 76 millions tourists a year,
France is the most visited country in the world. If tourism’s
impacts on French economy are important – about 7% of
French GDP and more than one million direct employments and
as much indirect ones – the impacts on the environment
and the inhabitants can turn out to be harmful.
 Over-frequentation
of natural areas, Over-urbanization of the coast, property
and land inflation, territorial “artificialisation and
over-consumption”, traffic jams and transport pollution,
pressure on water resources, waste accumulation, usage conflicts
and functional competition, water pollution, soils erosion,
over equipment of communes due to the seasonality, …
the impacts of mass tourism are numerous.
Working conditions of seasonal workers are
also far from being satisfactory and 21 millions of French
people do not go on holidays, whom 8 millions for financial
reasons (Insee Première n°1093 - juillet 2006).
Growing
responsible tourism’s practices
If France is rather seen as a mass tourism
destination, more and more local communities and tourism professionals
seek to run responsible tourism programs. Also, numerous initiatives
contribute to the development of a tourism respecting nature
and local people without being positioned as sustainable.
It’s the case for many projects of heritage restoration,
local products promotion, cycling-tourism, bird watching,
over-frequentation management, botanical discovery, agri-tourism,
…
  However,
numbers of initiatives claim responsible tourism. That is
the case of many protected areas such as the regional and
national parks which are the pioneers of a sustainable tourism
development in France. More than a dozen French protected
areas have adopted the European
Charter For Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas, and
others are on the way to adopt it. Several regional parks
of the massif central as well as the national park of the
Cévennes gathered together and formed the association
Inter-Parcs du Massif Central (IPAMAC). They have been pioneers
in implementing the European Charter for the local tourism
companies with the creation of the association Cévennes
écotourisme. The swamp of Vigueirat also develops
an ecotourism project named Life
Promesse. The other parks that did not sign the charter
contribute to sustainable tourism anyway through their own
park charters which are based on sustainable development principles.
Some “ecolabels” are specifics to protected areas
like the hôtels
au naturel and Gîtes
Panda.
Other ecolabels are applicable to the whole French territory
such as Green
Key, Eco
gîte, from the federation of Gîtes de France
and the European
label the Flower. There are also labels for sustainable
territorial management such as Blue
Flag which rewards local communities and sailing harbours
which make determining efforts in environment protection.
Or again the label Grand
Site de France attributed by the French government and
guarantying that the site is preserved and managed according
to sustainable development.
 Numerous
environmental associations also contribute to the development
of responsible tourism. The non profit organization Citizen
of the Earth has recently launched the network
éveil, the French
federation of the tourism union friends of nature works
towards different leisure, the league
for bird’s protection offers natural trips around ornithology,
the association longitude
181 has initiated the international guidelines for responsible
diver, Surfrider
Foundation Europe is working to enhance, save and protect
the oceans, waves and coastlines, the Permanent
Centres of environmental initiatives offer leisure and
nature discovery activities, the GERES runs the organization
CO2
solidaire which enables to offset the CO2 emissions, the
national
federation of heritage and landscapes associations and
the national
network for environmental education. The Stations
Vertes are also local communities of rural and mountain
areas which present a natural appeal and offer stays in a
preserved natural environment, or again the trekking circuits
Retrouvance
initiated by the National Forest Office, as well as the Eco
gesture in Mediterranean’s campaign coordinated
by the CPIE
of the Provencal Coast.
 Some
organizations offer volunteer programs, such as the French
Coordination of the associations de chantiers, the National
Union of the Regional associations Etudes et Chantiers,
the association Jeunesse
et Reconstruction, the association
for regional action and participation or A
Pas de Loup.
Agritourism initiatives are also growing,
particularly with the federations Accueil
paysan and bienvenue
a la ferme.
 France
is also committed to a social tourism policy which allows
holidays access to more people, in particular modest families,
handicapped people, old aged persons, youngsters… The
national union of the outdoor tourism associations group
together some social tourism organisations, bourse
solidarité vacances helps low income persons, the
Chèques-Vacances
are given by companies to their staff, and the label "Tourisme
et handicap" certify the organisations able to welcome
handicapped people.
Finally, the association Tourism-Site
has set up a network for sustainable development tourism destinations
in Europe.
Numerous initiatives are spread over the
French territory without a real possibility to identify them.
The directory
of the ecological holidays might help you to prepare your
holidays. Don’t forget to consult the above websites,
particularly to identify the organizations or destinations
having an ecolabel, as well as the non profit organizations
offering such stays and leisure. If however, you still do
not find what you are looking for, you will then have to ferret
about in the more classical tourism organisations such as
the national
federation of the tourism boards, the federation
of departmental tourism committee, the federation
of regional tourism committee, and Maison
de la France.
 
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