REDURISK : From the scientific recommendation to the appropriation by the citizens: the reduction of the risk related to the fires on a sensitive territory – REDURISK

REDURISK Research-Action Proposal

In a region at the forefront of fire risk, the REDURISK project aims to build, recommend and test a scientific mediation system that will change the behavior of target audiences: plant prescribers (nurserymen, neighborhood gardeners, etc.) and individuals with homes with gardens (neighborhood associations).

The hypothesis to be confirmed or invalidated by research in Human and Social Sciences in Social Psychology, Communication and Scientific Mediation is "Does a mediation system that preserves the direct link between researchers and citizens and that is structured around gentle incentives facilitate the appropriation by citizens of knowledge resulting from research when confronted with a perceived risk that is more or less close?

The originality of the approach lies in the fact that it will benefit from (i) an innovative, bottom-up approach, which starts with the analysis of target behaviors to be encouraged, to arrive at the co-construction of scientific mediation tools to be deployed in the territory at risk, (ii) an expertise that deploys in parallel an approach in SHS (behavioral sciences that are placed at the level of the individual and study the levers and brakes to the adoption of "virtuous" behaviors, (iii) scientific publications on fire risk on which to base the determination of "virtuous" behaviors, (iv) the possible embodiment of this science by researchers, with the presence in the territory of internationally recognized life science laboratories RECOVER and URFM, and (v) the possibility of coming to see this science being done in the laboratories.

Several research units of the French National Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE) located in Aix-Le Tholonet (RECOVER research unit "Risks, ECOsystems, Vulnerability, Environment, Resilience") and in Avignon (URFM research unit "Ecology of Mediterranean Forests") are developing research programs on Mediterranean forests and on the risk of wildfire.

Among the research areas, the one concerning risk management in the high-stakes zone that constitutes the habitat-forest interface takes on a very important dimension in the current situation of global change: characterized by global warming associated with a significant reduction in rainfall (R2D2 program already developed at the request of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Region), but also by changes in land use. This leads to a decrease in agricultural areas to the benefit of forest areas and the increase of habitat-forest interface surfaces (Feder POIA program, various projects funded by the DGPR of the EMR). The fires of the summer of 2021, which destroyed 6832 hectares in the Maures massif, seem to confirm the pessimistic forecasts. Similarly, the risk of forest fires will extend to the center and west of France, as well as in altitude in the southern region. It becomes therefore a priority to reinforce the information aimed at a panel of target persons as large as possible, by conducting prevention and awareness actions to increase the culture of risk related to forest fires.

The garden, as an extension of the individual habitat belongs to the private space, even private and intimate. It is loaded with information on the owners, their history, their standard of living, their tastes: it is a proper identity. Constraints on the garden are easily perceived in this context as an intrusion. Changing habits and behaviors is complex.