Action collective locale. Une analyse en terme de proximité sur la question du ruissellement érosif en Haute-Normandie, France.
Résumé
The objective of this paper, based on research on muddy floods in Pays de Caux (Normandy), is to determine whether the spatial constraints farmers are routinely faced with induce them to cooperate collectively. The case of erosive runoff offers a particularly instructive example in this respect. Indeed, the water circulation network delimits an area of land, which is farmed by several farmers. These farmers therefore need to coordinate their actions in order to collectively control erosive runoff, but in so doing they have no choice as to the farmers they wish to cooperate with. Our assumption is that the geographic proximity of farmers facilitates the development of collective actions. We identified the geographic distribution of farmers from data collected at the commune scale in Haute-Normandie. We then carried out two studies to analyse the effects of the degree of proximity among the farmers. The first concerned the territory of a commune, i.e. an area of land farmed by a large number of farmers, and highlighted the coordination problems posed by control of erosive runoff. These difficulties result from the spatial arrangement of farm territories and from the barriers between local professional networks. The second study involved a catchment basin characterised by both proximity and contiguity of the farm territories. It showed that in order to control trans-farm erosive runoff, coordination must be driven from outside the farmer community. Finally, we studied the forms of organisation developed at the regional level in the framework of rural contracts and hydrological watershed associations in order to control muddy floods. Our analysis deals with the objectives of these organisations in terms of coordination and cooperation modes among the various local actors.