It is our pleasure to welcome you to the 9th international Conference on Monitoring and Management of Visitors in Recreational and Protected Areas (MMV9) with a program including keynote speeches, organized and poster sessions, a half-day field trip, social events and post conference trips. This is the first time that France has hosted an MMV Conference. Our country is ranked as the world's top tourist destination, thanks largely to its culture, art, and gastronomy, as well as popular cities such as Paris and Bordeaux. On the other hand, France's potential as a destination for outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism is not hugely publicized, despite its many unique features in this respect: varied climate and natural assets (shoreline, mountains, lakes, and forests), large expanses of countryside, and a network of protected natural areas, to name but a few. France's protected areas are often free to access for the general public. However, in contrast with other countries, nature conservation in specific areas is much less widespread. Where it does take place, it is often centered on territories that are perceived to be "attractive", and where many conflicting activities are practiced. This may be one of the reasons why contractual tools and regional park systems are quite popular in France. The MMV Conference offers an excellent opportunity to discuss the situation in France in greater depth. The theme proposed for the conference was "recreation, place and local development". This reflects our assumption that recreational areas are not just physical assets designed to receive visitors for the purpose of leisure - which in itself would already be something of great importance - but that they reflect deeper social phenomena, as demonstrated through the range of organized sessions dedicated to discussing questions such as environmental education and economic development, but also emerging themes such as social integration, community resilience, environmental justice, and health. The traditional topics covered by MMV Conference reflect an evolving society: with innovations in monitoring techniques (both on people and nature), focus on new populations (Y generation, ethnic minority) and a larger concern for individual engagement and participative management. The 9th Edition of MMV is co-hosted by Irstea and BSA. This would not have been possible without significant contributions from a large number of additional partners and sponsors as well as our national scientific and organizing committee. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their help. After two years of planning, we are proud to announce that we have more than 160 presentations from 30 countries, meaning that the conference will host over 200 participants from across the globe. We are honored that the International Steering Committee has given us the opportunity to be part of this great MMV community, which organized its first meeting in 2002. We hope you will enjoy the conference as much as we enjoyed organizing it. If you can't be with us in person, we hope that you will enjoy reading our publications.