Research Supporting Recovery Programs: Dynamic Interactions Between Scientific Disciplines and Stakeholders, the Case of the European Sturgeon A. sturio

Recovery programs for endangered species are long term challenges. Decision support and recovery facilitation generally require scientific and technical expertise to be implemented. These programs ideally reflect a system with interactions among various stakeholders (resource users, agencies, management bodies, conservationists, scientists) involved. The analysis of the dynamics within this system can be realized at different scales (space and time) and levels of complexity (scientific disciplines and interactions with society). Depending upon the approach chosen, scientific priorities and relationships towards the stakeholders differ.

We analysed a posteriori the research carried out in France and Germany during the last 40 years in support the recovery programs of the European sturgeon. From this analysis it appears that different phases in the process of problem identification and rehabilitation correspond to a subset of paradigms. Some of them were very efficient to produce new knowledge but had a very limited impact in term of biological conservation, while some efficiently contributed equally to both aspects. The information obtained is obviously linked to the budget but the scale, structure and the composition of the networks of stakeholders and researchers involved explains most of the observed differences (types of scientific production and impacts for conservation) between periods.