Les Causses et les Cévennes, patrimoine mondial de l'humanité

Cultural, living and evolving landscapes of Mediterranean agro-pastoralism

The Causses and the Cévennes present, in a magnificent natural setting, a diversity of landscapes, combined works of nature and man ... Limestone plateaus of the Causses cut by gorges or valleys - sharp ridges and deep valleys of the schist Cevennes - high granite peaks of the Lozère and Aigoual mountains: a diversity of landscapes which should not hide the fact that they belong to the same whole. They owe their unity to a culture patiently developed over the course of a multi-millennial history: Mediterranean agro-pastoral culture.This culture, testimony to a new agrarian history, is today embodied in these landscapes, on the one hand in the tangible, and intangible heritage which preserves the memory of the great stages of its formation and on the other hand, in the development model which it has adopted for two decades to ensure its modernization and sustainable development.

The shaping of landscapes is the fruit of a millennial history.

Living landscapes , Les Causses and the Cévennes have experienced agro-pastoral development, the practice of which continues. The maintenance, over large areas, of well-preserved landscapes that belong to a common Euro-Mediterranean landscape, gives all the more value to the territory, a living conservatory of ways of enhancing the middle mountains. Even today, the drailles mark these lands of transhumance and appear as hyphens between the Causses and the Cévennes.

A remarkable and protected heritage , Les Causses and the Cévennes are rich in a remarkable heritage, landscaped, natural and cultural.The monumental or more modest architectural heritage linked to agro-pastoralism is the subject of particular attention from the actors of the territory who work to protect and enhance it.



ID card
2 Regions (Languedoc-Roussillon, Midi-Pyrénées)
4 departments (Aveyron, Gard, Hérault, Lozère)
134 municipalities constituting 3000 km²
97 municipalities in the peripheral zone
231 municipalities in total and 6000 km2 of highlands in the south of the Massif Central, open to the Mediterranean.
5 gateway cities: Alès, Ganges, Lodève, Mende, Millau.