Pôle Bocage
et Faune Sauvage

Missions

The role of the bocage and wildlife expertise centre is to encourage sustainable management of bocage environments in support of nationwide bocage conservation efforts. The centre provides information about this often-overlooked wildlife habitat and promotes its heritage value.

The centre’s main aims are to :

 Collate and summarise scientific and technical knowledge relating to the bocage habitat acquired by ONCFS and its partners;

 Identify new and innovative areas for further research and experimentation with a view to defining and updating the research programmes conducted by the ONCFS Studies and Research Dept. and other organisations;

 Provide knowledge transfer for ONCFS field operatives working on development initiatives;

 Promote bocage-friendly farming practices, in particular via the Agrifaune network;

 Promote the inclusion of this knowledge in local and national public policy.

The expertise centre provides ONCFS employees and partners with a hedgerow management toolkit and guidance to assist them in their own development projects.

Since 2007, the Poitou-Charentes/Limousin Inter-Regional Delegation has launched various initiatives to support the work of the expertise centre. These projects, which relate to understanding, encouraging and promoting awareness about bocage conservation, have received funding from the Regional Council of Poitou-Charentes.
Successful partnerships play an important role in the expertise centre’s operation. For example, ONCFS has a cooperative agreement with the national forest survey agency (Inventaire Forestier National), and another with the nature reserves agency (Espaces Naturels de France).