Chaîne des Puys - Limagne fault tectonic arena

Local communities and stakeholders were involved in the preparation of both the 2015-2020 and the 2021-2027 management plans for the site and engagement of local stakeholders in the management of the site is one of the key priorities identified in the management plan (State Party of France, 2017; CdP, 2021). The key consultation body is the local commission, which associates all public services, the properties owners representants and other stakeholders (IUCN Consultation, 2024). It meets once a year. Furthermore, the park and the departmental council have implemented a management follow up team. Each project is submitted to a shared management plan, including the properties owners as well as the local authorities. It is considered an outstanding success in terms of methodology (IUCN Consultation, 2024). New governance bodies were set up at the end of 2024 to increase the involvement of the various stakeholders and the frequency of their meetings. These touch on local elected representatives (with the creation of a territory committee dedicated to the 30 municipalities and 5 inter-municipalities of the property); technical services and ad-hoc project groups. As well as this, an international association of inhabited natural sites has been set up to link local communities and stakeholders with those of other similar sites around the world. This led to an international workshop in October 2024 on sustainable landscapes, pastoralism and forestry. It brought together site managers from all over the world along with local stakeholders and representative of the French IUCN committee. There are plans to repeat the event for 2026, the International Year of Pastoralism (IUCN Consultation, 2025).

The protection of the site is ensured by a national legislative framework, regulatory documents for land use planning and local operations implemented by various actors from the local to national level. In particular, the Chaîne des Puys has been protected by decree since 2000 as a classified site. The site is part of the Auvergne Volcanoes Regional Natural Park and includes Natura 2000 sites and Sensitive Natural Areas. A biotope decree on the Narse d'Espinasse, a regional nature reserve (cheires and caves of Volvic), also exists. Following concerns raised at the time of inscription that one of the key areas of the site, the inverted relief of the Montagne de la Serre, falls outside the "site classé/inscrit" designation (IUCN, 2018), the government is in the process of assessing the potential classification of this area as a "site classé" (IUCN Consultation, 2020a). The process of assessing the classification of the Montagne de la Serre as a “site classé” went through all the administrative steps with no issue at the local as well as national levels. The Higher Commission for Sites, Perspectives and Landscapes gave a positive outcome in November of 2023. As of September of 2024, all interministerials consultations are done. It has yet to be reviewed by the “Conseil d’Etat”, which will be the last step of the procedure. The transfer process to the ‘Conseil d’Etat” has been delayed but the Montagne de la Serre will become a “site classé” at the end of 2025 (IUCN Consultation, 2025). The Natura 2000 site is currently being updated with the area covered by its perimeter getting bigger (2024/2025).

Governance of the site seems to be functioning well with no known concerns. The 2021-2027 Management Plan (CdP 2021) spells out current governance arrangements. These arrangements seem adequate for current site management.

Based on the review of documents available, it appears that the State Party / Departmental Council of Puy de Dome (2021) has successfully integrated site protection and management efforts with local, regional, and national planning systems. Overall, the site is integrated into the territorial planning processes at local scale and the “sites classés” and “sites inscrits” protections are effective at the national level. With the classification of the Montagne de la Serre as a “site classé” both sites “chaîne des pauys” and “montagne de la Serre” will cover 17 500 hectares in total (IUCN Consultation, 2024).

The boundaries of the site meet the requirements of the World Heritage Convention (IUCN, 2018), following the exclusion of the two quarries from the original nomination in response to concerns about the unusual configuration of the boundaries and inclusion of heavily modified landscapes. Overlapping private, state, and common ownership require a high degree of stakeholder and park staff input and education to properly manage boundaries. The park and the departmental council have implemented a management follow up team (IUCN Consultation, 2024).

Based on review of documents provided, the site does not appear to have any overlapping international designations.

Since inscription of the site in 2018, the government has expressed its commitment to implementing the recommendations of the Committee. Reported progress of actions taken to date include initiation of the process to close one of the two quarries (the puy de la Toupe quarry operating licence has not been renewed and the final site restoration has been completed in June of 2022), development of a new management plan (operational since 2021), as well as a reflection on the conditions aimed at strengthening the tools and the protection regime for the Montagne de la Serre sector (IUCN Consultation, 2020b). The process of assessing the classification of the Montagne de la Serre is in its last step (IUCN Consultation, 2024).

The current management plan for the CdP World Heritage site (CdP 2021) mentions climate change but does not provide any extensive discussion of the impacts of climate change on the site with the specific mention of concern about climate change impacts on the Limagne fault. Only one report (CdP, 2021) specifically mentions climate change and its potential impacts on the CdP site. However, this report does not go into depth on the question of climate change. The only mention of a specific impact on a CdP site feature is the importance of preserving the Limagne fault and its vulnerability to “strong water stress due to climate change ….”.

The Department of Puy-de-Dôme is in charge of the management of the World Heritage site in close collaboration with the State services and the Parc des Volcans d´Auvergne. The Department and the Park have pooled their staff to ensure day-to-day management of the site (IUCN Consultation, 2020b). The 2015-2020 management plan for the site was developed and submitted as part of the World Heritage nomination dossier (State Party of France, 2017). It was developed in addition to other local tools for the protection of natural heritage and spatial planning (ENS, Natura 2000, etc.). The original management plan was developed following consultations between 2010 and 2012 involving local and national institutions, socio-professional actors, inhabitants and scientists. The stakeholders drew up the diagnosis, defined the management priorities and proposed actions to preserve the property on the basis of prior reflections by a scientific and technical group. Steering is ensured by an Executive Committee led by the Puy-de-Dôme General Council. This Committee is supported by a Local Commission, a Technical Committee, a World Heritage Mission, a Monitoring Unit and a Permanent Scientific Council. In March of 2024, the Puy-de-Dôme Departemental Council also acted a new “World Heritage – 2030 Ambition” territorial project. The Management Plan is built around three axes: (1) preservation of the integrity of the geological heritage, (2) management of tourist numbers and maintenance of local economic activities and (3) sharing of knowledge and detailed in precise and prioritised operational sheets.
The current 2021-2027 management plan (CdP, 2021) has been validated. An assessment of its implementation outcomes will start in 2025, alongside the renewing of the “grand site de France” label. Indeed, on this last point, the renewing of the “Grand Site de France” label will be requested at the end of 2026 and requires consideration of the future management plan from 2025. The objective will be to extend the “Grand Site de France” label to the Montagne de la Serre, which will be a “site classé” (IUCN Consultation, 2025). It is reported to be part of the continuity of management actions to guarantee the geological, natural and landscape integrity of the site while supervising and structuring human activities including tourist attendance (IUCN Consultation, 2020a,b). The three initial axes are maintained and new subjects include the preservation of biodiversity (two local decisions protecting the natural areas and biodiversity have been signed in 2023), the creation of a landscape plan (implemented in 2021 and 2022), and a study of the areas of landscape influence (implemented in 2021) (IUCN Consultation, 2024). The plan includes cross-cutting issues of preserving the integrity of geological features and associated landscapes, respect for biodiversity and climate change (IUCN Consultation, 2020b). The plan (guidelines and actions) are available on demand as the Website is currently being redesigned in its entirety.

There is a good level of park staffing and financial commitment for the site (World Heritage Committee, 2018; IUCN, 2018; CdP, 2021).

At the time of inscription, it was considered that levels of financial commitment are sufficient (IUCN, 2018; World Heritage Committee, 2018). The site's 2015-2020 management plan lists numerous public financial sources that can be mobilized from the local (department) to international (Europe) level without specifying the amounts actually available. The 2021-2027 management plan benefits from the same public financial sources as well as patronage, in particular through the Fondation Chaîne des Puys-faille de Limagne (IUCN Consultation, 2020b). The current management plan integrates a budget for each planned action and the Fondation already co-funded a few actions and the departemental council has acted a new “World Heritage – 2030 Ambition” territorial project in March of 2024 (IUCN Consultation, 2024).

At the time of inscription, it was noted that staffing levels were sufficient (IUCN, 2018; World Heritage Committee, 2018). Increased training is recommended owing to the complex nature of managing an area with high stakeholder engagement and need for stakeholder education on land use restrictions. The training aimed to local guides has been updated. It is available online as a MOOC (IUCN Consultation, 2024). An international workshop, including local stakeholders, was organized at the end of 2024 and was a great success. There are plans to repeat the event for 2026, the International Year of Pastoralism (IUCN Consultation, 2025).

The current management plan of the site lists numerous actions aimed at developing knowledge and the valorisation of the site among the public and local actors. The development of educational resources, educational services and, more broadly, geotourism around the Outstanding Universal Value of the site are also being sought. Furthermore, other activities included online training of local actors, publication of an educational booklet on the Chaîne des Puys, partnership with the National Education to develop educational materials and activities (IUCN Consultation, 2020b).

The World Heritage site is located in a populated and touristic region and close to a large conurbation (Clermont-Ferrand), which generates a significant number of tourists. Numerous museums and infrastructures for the in-situ promotion of the geoheritage exist. Various Sensitive Natural Spaces also enable ecotourism to be developed locally. The 2015-2020 management plan for the site lists numerous actions aimed at developing and managing tourism (development of reception and visitor infrastructures, management of sports events, development of geotourism on a regional scale, etc.) (State Party of France, 2017). These actions have been widened in the new action plan. Since 2020, further updates include the adaptation of hiking trails to better channel visitors (programs initiated on the puys de Pariou, la Vache, Lassolas and included in the PG 2021/2027), increased training of guides and mountain guides with recognition for certified guides, and the development and implementation of afforestation regulations to delimit areas prohibited for afforestation (IUCN Consultation, 2020b). On the puy de Côme and puy du Pariou (which is the second most visited site after the puy de Dôme), two local decisions protecting the natural areas and biodiversity were signed in 2023 to regulate the access to the hiking trails. It is no longer possible to go down inside the puy de Pariou and up the puy de Côme. At the same time, restoration operations have been conducted to repair the eroded areas and stabilize the authorized trails (IUCN Consultation, 2024). In regard to the condition of paths, tracks, roads, fragile slopes, etc. within the CdP site, volcanic soils are relatively young and fragile by nature, meaning footpaths are maintained and even worked on throughout the year (IUCN Consultation, 2024). Two orders for the protection of natural habitats have also been issued to limit unauthorised footpaths on the Côme and Pariou puys. Substantial work has been carried out to change the route of paths that were too steep and more prone to erosion than the new routes, which were designed to take account of the contour lines. The old closed paths are then renatured. The issues are very different on the Plateau des Dômes, the Faille de Limagne and the Montagne de la Serre, where the soils are much older and better constituted. These paths are simply maintained by local authorities.
Assessing overall visitor numbers is an ongoing task for the property managers (Veslot et al, 2024). In addition, as part of its overall policy, the Puy-de-Dôme department has asked the mobile phone operator Orange to allow it to take measurements based on mobile phone landmarks on the Chaîne des Puys - Limagne Fault; this method of counting, which will make it possible to observe changes in visitor numbers, will be operational in 2025.

Some concerns were noted at the time of inscription related to agriculture, quarrying, and increased visitation (World Heritage Committee, 2018), however as the State Party implements the recommendations of the World Heritage Committee these threats are being addressed effectively. Since 2008, a French "Opération Grand Site" has been aimed at enhancing and protecting the Puy de Dôme, notably by improving tourist reception conditions with a view to sustainable development. The “grand site de France” perimeter as been increased in order to attain 43, 000 hectares in 2021. In 2026/2027, during the next renewing of the label, the objective will be to extend the Grand Site de France label to the Montagne de la Serre which will then be a “site classé” (IUCN Consultation, 2025). A Forest Charter for the area is also being implemented in the site in order to guarantee the sustainable use of the forest resource by local stakeholders. This charter is used by all forest stakeholders (IUCN Consultation, 2024). The maintenance of summer pastures and sustainable pastoral activities is one of the objectives identified in the operational sheets of the 2020-2025 Management Plan (State Party of France, 2017).

The 2015-2020 management plan included the aim to create a landscape observatory, which is being implemented. Elaboration and providing public access to the photographs of the landscape observatory of the Chaîne des Puys - Limagne fault aims to renew one third of the photographs every year (Departmental Council of Puy-de-Dôme, 2020; IUCN Consultation, 2020b). Also in progress is the elaboration of an observatory of the socio-economic impacts of heritage policies including the observation of the frequentation (IUCN Consultation, 2020b). All the observatories content is available online (IUCN Consultation, 2024).

The area that now constitutes the World Heritage site has been, and continues to be, an area of active research into the process of continental breakup, and individual components of the system.

The new 2021-27 management plan has been finalised (CdP 2021) and it remains to be confirmed to what degree management effectiveness has been monitored and evaluated since inscription. The new management plan is operational since 2021. The future renewing of the label “Grand Site de France” (2026/2027) will be an opportunity to evaluate the 2021-2027 management plan.

The new 2021-27 management plan has been finalised (CdP 2021) and it remains to be confirmed to what degree management effectiveness has been monitored and evaluated since inscription. The new management plan is operational since 2021. The future renewing of the label “Grand Site de France” (2026/2027) will be an opportunity to evaluate the 2021-2027 management plan.