Institutional changes in farmland governance emerging from a collective land preservation procedure upholding local food projects: Evidence from a French case study
Résumé
The issue of agricultural land loss in urban and suburban areas, paired with the societal demand for local food provision, calls for the development of innovative procedures aiming at preserving agricultural land to secure local food provision. However, the implementation of such procedures raises concerns about the evolution of land governance for food purposes. From this perspective, this article analyses changes brought about by the French procedure for the protection of natural and agricultural peri-urban areas (PAEN: périmètres de protection des espaces agricoles et naturels), in light of the framework of the institutional design principles mainly developed by Elinor Ostrom. By analysing the PAEN procedure in the Lyon Metropolitan area in France, we show how this procedure is leading to evolutions in farmland governance, is participating to the attribution of new property rights to the actors involved in this governance and is questioning the status of agricultural land.