Contenu de l'article

Titre La notion de climax : modèle d'une nature sauvage
Auteur Raphaël Larrère
Mir@bel Revue Etudes rurales
Numéro no 129-130, 1993 Sauvage et domestique
Page 15-31
Résumé anglais The Concept of Climax : A Wilderness Model If all human interventions were to cease in the Aigoual area (Cévennes), what would be the climax of the "natural" forest growing there between 700 and 1300 meters in altitude ? Would it become a thickset, monotonous, impenetrable beech wood that, lacking a variety of plant and animal life, would be regenerated only through catastrophes (storms, fires, invasions of parasites), as foresters claim ? Would it become a mosaic of stable forms of plant life offering an open landscape for a variety of wildlife, as Park ecologists claim ? Given the current state of knowledge, the most likely scenario cannot be predicted. Images of nature have wormed their way into the "rational fiction" of a climax, images that, living like parasites on ecologists' and foresters' scientific discourses, lead them to diverging conclusions. According to foresters, silviculture, besides producing timber, also creates diversity in fauna and flora. According to ecologists, logging causes a trauma, and silviculture impoverishes the environment by homogenizing species for productive purposes.
Source : Éditeur (via Persée)
Article en ligne http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/rural_0014-2182_1993_num_129_1_3399