La place du géopatrimoine dans les parcs naturels régionaux de l'arc jurassien.

Abstract

Since 2006 (modification of Nature protection law), about 30 projects of natural parks have emerged in Switzerland. Regional nature parks (RNP) are ideal instruments for the promotion of geoheritage because they are not only regions with important natural and landscape heritage, but also because soft tourism and environmental education are considered as fundamental activities. In this research, the Jura range is considered. This is a region with rich natural and cultural heritage with six RNP, one of which is situated in France (RNP Haut Jura) the others in Switzerland. A questionnaire was sent via the Internet to the six regional nature parks during winter 2011. This communication aims at presenting a comparative overview of geoheritage in the six Parks. A recent study (Martin, 2011) has demonstrated that the Jura range represents only 4,6% of the Swiss surface but 16,2% of the geosites of national importance. Another research (Fontana and Reynard, 2011) based on the presence of geosites of national significance has shown that four of the six studied Parks present a geoheritage that can be considered as very high. The results of both studies illustrate that geoheritage in this mountain range is very important. Therefore several questions will be addressed : what are the geoheritage specificities of each Park and how are they used in the RNP ? A second objective is the study of strategies of geoheritage promotion developed by the different projects. For example some of these parks are developing an approach of geoheritage by landscapes (folded and fluvial morphology) while the others have developed very specific topics as ore and mines, karst and water management, dinosaurs and fossils. In this context we will trace what is the specific promotion techniques developed for promoting geoheritage in tis quite homogeneous structural domain. Finally, we will show if there is, through the promotion strategies developed by the Park managers, a global and complementary view of the Jura range geoheritage or if the public is in presence of identical geotourist products in all Parks.