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What are &#8220;eco-frontiers?&#8221;The theoretical content is rooted in the idea that &#8220;ecologically-based&#8221; areas are an object of conquest and appropriation from outsiders who have different visions and actions (between them and towards local people) about the future of this particular space. These areas can be regarded as &#8220;frontier spaces&#8221; (Hohl, Tisdell, 1994; Griffiths, Robin, 1997; Dovers, Edgecombe, Guest, 2002; Malason, Zeng, Walsh, 2006) because of their specificity (unknown area, low population density, weak integration and connection of local people with the rest of the world, ecological assets, less developed territory etc.), but these areas do not coincide with &#8220;historical frontiers&#8221; or with the meaning of geographical position. These spaces are a new generation of frontiers, replaced in the current post-modern context where globalisation versus glocalisation (Ramutsindela, 2004-a; Swyngedouw, 2004), ecology, and sustainable development play a central role. Eco-frontiers are strategic spaces with regard to the future of nature resources and global change. The references are not used here to show gaps in the literature that legitimise the use of a new notion like eco-frontier. Rather, we prefer to build our argument with articles that address the questions and issues raised in managing eco-frontiers. (Collinson, 1996; Griffiths, Robin, 1997; Zimmerer, 2000; Jacoby, 2001; Adams, Mulligan, 2003; Fall, 2005; Beinart, Hughes, 2007) Unstable, highly coveted, and instrumentalised, &#8220;eco-frontiers&#8221; are transitory and temporary spaces characterised by unique interrelationships between different appropriations of ecological resources (conservation, extraction, etc.), strongly marked by sense of place, land conflicts, territorial games, and competing network forces. The eco-frontier is also a mental representation of nature, which sometimes does not coincide with reality (Crosby, 1986; Payne, 1996;Aubertin, 2005; Brooks, 2005).Eco-frontiers and spatial processEco-frontiers are frontier areas, at different scales characterised by specific ecological dimensions and values that imply an invasive or neo-colonial process initiated by outsiders. This &#8216;ecological value&#8217; is often symbolised or represented by a unique landscape bounded and opened to a vast or inaccessible wilderness, e.g., the ocean, a mountain range, a deep tropical forest (Slater, 1996), or a desert. Eco-frontiers are places of pristine biodiversity and scarce, but valuable natural resources (e.g., water, minerals, forest, local knowledge). Eco-frontiers are linked, if not included, within frontier spaces. The process of making eco-frontiers can be stated using a neologism: &#8220;eco-frontierisation.&#8221; Consequently, different spatial parameters are attached to eco-frontiers: - a specific scale - a general idea of &#8216;blur zone&#8217; because of unknown and moving limits and dimensions - a gateway or bridgehead where the &#8216;conquest&#8217; starts (tourism resort, nature reserve offices, mining camp, peri-urban housing etc.) that is well-linked to the rest of the country and to the world - an unattainable (physical or mental) limit (such as sky, ocean, deep forest, underground etc.). Also, temporal parameters are the counterpart of these spatial parameters. Indeed, the duration of the process of &#8220;eco-frontierisation&#8221; has to be distinguished from the temporality of the eco-frontier dynamic: the appropriation of ecological resources takes a long time. Thus, impacts on ecological components also vary over time. An example of these conflicts is the interplay between firm nature conservation and fast tropical forest destruction. The eco-frontier is by nature unstable and ephemeral. If and when the process of &#8220;eco-frontierisation&#8221; is accomplished, new categories of spaces are produced, drawing new borders between developed and less developed areas (mining areas and urban developments versus rural periphery) or between conserved and non-conserved territories (national parks versus rural margins). This stabilisation is sometimes fragile and contested if local people disagree with the whole process (Collinson, 1996; Honey, 1999; Compagnon, Constantin, 2000; Dovers, Edgecombe, Guest, 2002; Hilson, 2002; Fabricus, Koch, Turner et al., 2004; Ramutsindela, 2004-b). Consequently, the eco-frontier is a temporary and transitory space, which is always translated into somewhere else until the &#8220;last eco-frontier&#8221; is reached. Eco-frontiers and game of stakeholders Although eco-frontiers are &#8220;less developed&#8221; spaces, often rural and/or confined spaces, with low population density, they are inhabited by long-standing groups of people who are cleverly managing their environment (Brush, Stabinski, 1996). The conquest of the eco-frontier is done by outsiders (&#8220;eco-settlers,&#8221; &#8220;eco-colonisers&#8221;, &#8220;frontier people&#8221; or just tourists), whose objectives are first linked to use of the natural environment (conservationists, environmental NGO&#8217;s, mining companies, tourism developers, state planers) and to its political or financial value (Anderson, Grove, 1987; Collinson, 1996; Compagnon, Constantin, 2000; Bryant, 2002; Hilson, 2002; Ramutsindela, 2003; Guyot, 2006; Guyot, 2007). This conquest is not necessarily taking place in the field, but can be enacted remotely by &#8220;virtual eco-settlers.&#8221; As such, eco-frontiers do not really see armies of eco-settlers wishing to settle. Networking, distant control and regular (even temporary) stays can be more powerful in the long term. The eco-settlement process is achieved more and more often through networking forces. All these &#8220;neo-colonisers&#8221; have divergent and often contradictory agendas. Of course, they do have globally scaled action in common. Their motivations are often hidden by proactive and generous discourse based on necessary improvements of the poor condition of the &#8216;oldest inhabitants of the place&#8217; (so called &#8220;indigenous people&#8221; or &#8220;local communities&#8221;). Most of the time, these actions are meant to replace past racial or ethnic ideologies, especially in post-colonial or post-apartheid contexts (Cock, Koch, 1991; Rodary, Castellanet, Rossi, 2003; Giraut, Guyot, Houssay-Holzschuch, 2005). In reality, (past) racial, ethnic or class boundaries are still active within eco-frontiers but are now hidden: white, urban, rich, global, and environmentally cautious or development-orientated people; versus black, rural, poor, local people, who are environmentally captive (Guyot, 2006). In that context, notions of &#8220;environmental racism&#8221; (Pulido, 2000) and &#8220;environmental justice&#8221; (Cutter, 1995; Khan, 2002; Turner, Wu, 2002; Ishiyama, 2003) may be useful. These outsiders use mobilise territorialisation and networking processes to achieve their goals. However, new conflicting territories and divided networking forces are clashing with land rights, land uses, and the &#8220;sense of place&#8221; of the &#8216;local&#8217; people. This tends to divide them into different categories like &#8220;connected relays&#8221; (of neo-colonisers), marginalized (and potentially virulent) citizens (Neumann, 1998), or dominated masses. Eco-frontiers are consequently highly contested and politicised zones. In that regard, studies on eco-frontiers, even if they did not use that specific terminology, are totally within the realm of political ecology (Payne, 1996; Gibson, 1999; Bebbington, Batterbury, 2001; Zimmerer, Basset, 2003; Robbins, 2004; Hinchliffe, 2008). One may say it is a reconstructed notion to explain outside processes on a particular space without paying attention to local dynamics, but, on the other hand, it highlights real facts that affect the local population (Spence, 1999). Local responses to eco-frontierisation and &#8216;demonstrated indigenous ability&#8217; to adapt, slow down, or stop outside appropriation of nature resources is definitely part of this reflection (Collinson, 1996; Compagnon, Constantin, 2000; Kepe, 2008). To avoid &#8220;community,&#8221; &#8220;indigenous people,&#8221; or other overused terms we will designate local people by the term &#8220;place people:&#8221; the oldest inhabitants of a place. Stakeholder dynamics within eco-frontiers are numerous and complicated, and they appear to be much more complex than simple antagonism described earlier between eco-settlers and place people (Western, Wright, Strum, 1994). These two categories of actors are already intertwined because of multiple games, political dynamics, and internal subtypes and they interact with many other stakeholders such as politicians, NGO&#8217;s, or tourists.How to differentiate types of eco-frontiers?The above discussion illustrates general patterns of eco-frontiers. Defined that way, the notion of eco-frontier is still broad and needs to be clarified by using subtypes. Indeed, differentiations need to be made with regard to all constitutive parameters of the definition: ecological value, appropriation, scale, space, time, the spatial future, different stakeholders, level of contestation, and representations. These divisions are detailed in Table 1 using different parameters. At least two possibilities exist for classifying eco-frontiers. &#160;* The first category separates three types of eco-frontiers: - physical: ecological appropriations - mental: mental representations- spiritual: ecological and spatial roots of the faith and the sacred. Many links exist between these three types, especially through heritage processes (patrimonialisation). * The second category also separates three types of eco-frontiers following the definitions of ecological values and appropriations: - wilderness: nature conservation- landscape: heritage, tourism and peri-urbanisation- &#8216;extractive:&#8217; resource extraction. Commercial agriculture may be included in this category. &#160;We claim a holistic approach where the eco-frontier is &#8216;a whole&#8217; and usually includes two of the three categories. This implies that the eco-frontier is plural and coveted by different parties for different purposes. Often, conservation, tourism, or secondary residences and primary extractive activities conflict in the same area. Some stakeholders speak on behalf of the wilderness (Cronon, 1995; Honey, 1999; Compagnon, Constantin, 2000; Rodary, Castellanet, Rossi, 2003), some on behalf of the landscape (Gunner, 2005; McGregor, 2005), and others on behalf of resource extraction (Collinson, 1996); all of these groups subscribe to a wide range of mental representations and/or spiritual motivations. Main themes open for articles and communications:     Eco-frontiers in time: dynamics, temporalities and history     Spatial models of eco-frontiers     Eco-frontiers and land/scape, eco-frontiers and wilderness, eco-frontiers and natural resources     Territorial representations of eco-frontiers in geography, literature, arts, political sciences, religion etc.     Outside strategies of control versus local inhabitant&#8217;s responses     Land issues versus ecological and landscape values: territorialisation, networks and arrangements.     Boundaries and borders of eco-frontiers     Stakeholders, scales and networks of eco-frontiers     Eco-frontiers politics     Territorial planning of eco-frontiers     Post-colonial eco-frontiers     Racism, human hierarchy and eco-frontiers     Environmental resources, land uses and land rights Mercredi 27 mai 200914h &#8211; Accueil des participants et inscriptions15h&#160;- Ouverture du colloque        Pr. Jacques Migozzi, Doyen de la Facult&#233;            Pr. Philippe All&#233;e, Directeur Geolab            Dr. Sylvain Guyot, Organisateur    &#171;&#160;Introduction&#160;: les fronts &#233;cologiques, entre repr&#233;sentations et processus conqu&#233;rants&#160;&#187;18h - Vernissage de l&#8217;exposition&#171;&#160;L&#8217;Afrique du Sud, 15 ans de d&#233;mocratie&#160;&#187;Elisabeth et Beno&#238;t AntheaumeCocktail musical&#160;Image, reflet, miroir de l&#8217;Afrique du Sud, le mur est souvent fronti&#232;re et s&#233;paration. Il se transforme en lien, lorsqu&#8217;il devient support d&#8217;expression graphique. Le mur graffit&#233; ou peint r&#233;v&#232;le &#224; la fois les tensions de l&#8217;apartheid, c&#233;l&#232;bre la naissance de la d&#233;mocratie et projette les aspirations et r&#234;ves des populations. Il est aussi vecteur de communication lorsqu&#8217;il diffuse les messages d&#8217;&#233;ducation ou de sant&#233;, et particuli&#232;rement lorsqu&#8217;il relaie les mots d&#8217;ordre de la campagne contre le sida, la &#171; nouvelle lutte &#187;. Elisabeth Deliry-Antheaume, g&#233;ographe et photographe, et Beno&#238;t Antheaume, directeur de recherche &#224; l&#8217;IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le D&#233;veloppement) vous invitent &#224; d&#233;couvrir une s&#233;lection de photographies collect&#233;es depuis 1995 dans pratiquement toutes les villes et townships du pays qu&#8217;ils ont parcouru inlassablement. A travers leur exp&#233;rience, et les t&#233;moignages qu&#8217;ils ont recueillis, c&#8217;est le processus de transformation du pays qu&#8217;ils tenteront de vous faire partager. Ces photographies sont un bel hommage &#224; l&#8217;Afrique du Sud, pays invit&#233; du colloque, et &#224; ses artistes connus ou anonymes, qui sans rel&#226;che nous invitent &#224; porter un autre regard sur les villes et la soci&#233;t&#233; sud-africaines.Soir&#233;e libreJeudi 28 mai 20098h30-10h30 - Atelier PondolandMod&#233;rateur&#160;: Pr. William Beinart Universit&#233; d&#8217;Oxford&#8220;The contested territory&#8221;Navy Simukonda &#8211; Mcebisi Kraai TRALSO&#8220;The management of indigenous fishing in the Eastern Cape&#8217;s Wild coast of South Africa&#8221;Lizile Mniki Universit&#233; de Fort Hare&#8220;Pondoland national park and the making of an environmental ideology in a South African countryside&#8221;Dr. Thembela Kepe Universit&#233; de Toronto&#8220;Fight for land rights versus outsider&#8217;s &#8216;appetites&#8217; : wild coast eco-frontier dynamics&#8221;Dr. Julien Dellier - Dr. Sylvain Guyot Universit&#233; de Limoges10h30-11h - Pause11h-12h30 - Atelier WildernessMod&#233;rateur : Dr. Eric Rouvellac Universit&#233; de Limoges&#8220;Saisir les fronts &#233;cologiques amazoniens en trois dimensions&#160;: les liens entre dynamiques horizontales et verticales&#8221;Dr. Romain Taravella Universit&#233; de Laval - Xavier Arnaud de Sartre CNRS&#8220;Les zones cyg&#233;n&#233;tiques en Afrique comme front &#233;cologique&#8221;Maxime Michaud Universit&#233; de Lyon 2&#8220;Fronts &#233;cologiques en Alberta&#160;: protection et pr&#233;dation, un aper&#231;u canadien&#8221;Dr. St&#233;phane H&#233;ritier Universit&#233; de St Etienne&#8220;La collaboration environnementale transfrontali&#232;re comme lever de l&#8217;unit&#233; alpine&#160;?&#8221;Dr. Lionel Laslaz Universit&#233; de Savoie12h30-14h - D&#233;jeuner 14h-15h30 - Atelier Nature-Culture SAMod&#233;rateur&#160;: Dr. Myriam Houssay-Holzschuch ENS LSH&#8220;Shifting frontiers of Wildness&#160;: Renaissance and boundaries crossing the nature-culture game&#8221;PR. Malcolm Draper Universit&#233; du Kwazulu-Natal&#8220;Civilization goes against nature&#160;: the wilderness at stake in a post-apartheid novel&#8221;Rim Makni-Bejar Universit&#233; de Paris 7&#8220;La r&#233;gion florale du Cap, wilderness ou paysage&#160;?&#8221;Dr. Nadia Belaidi CNRS UMR PRODIG &#8211; Dr. Myriam Houssay ENS-LSH &#8211; Dr. Olivier Ninot UMR PRODIG15h30-16h - Pause16h-17h45 - Atelier Reconstructions et Nouvelles AppropriationsMod&#233;rateur&#160;: Pr. Christophe Beaurain Universit&#233; de Limoges&#8220;De l&#8217;effacement &#224; la surgestion du tiers espace agro-&#233;cologique&#160;: pourquoi le saltus a-t-il disparu de la pens&#233;e agronomique moderne et pourquoi doit-il &#234;tre r&#233;investi&#8221;Xavier Poux &#8211; Jean-Baptiste Narcy &#8211; Blandine Ramain, AScA RGTE&#8220;Paradoxes of landscape construction. Swedish land-care arrangements in a wider context&#8221;Katarina Saltzman Universit&#233; de G&#246;teborg &#8211; Anders Wastfelt Universit&#233; de Stockholm&#8220;The rediscovery of the Rhone river&#8217;s waterfront&#160;: an eco-frontier in the Lyon&#8217;s historical centre&#160;?&#8221;Yves-Fran&#231;ois Le Lay - Pr. Anne Rivi&#232;re-Honneger, Universit&#233; de Lyon&#8220;La gentrification des espaces naturels en Angleterre&#160;: apr&#232;s le front &#233;cologique, l&#8217;occupation&#160;?&#8221;Dr. Fr&#233;d&#233;ric Richard Universit&#233; de Limoges&#8220;Deux cas d&#8217;&#233;mergence des fronts &#233;cologiques dans la p&#233;riph&#233;rie de la ville de Mexico&#160;: enjeux fonciers et arrangements territoriaux autour de la conservation des terres rurales comme valeurs &#233;cologiques&#8221;Dr. Lydia Blasquez-Martinez UAM-Iztapalapa18h-19h30 &#8211; Conf&#233;rence&#8220;Back from ocean eco-frontiers : 10 years around the world on a 7,5 meters sailing boat&#8221;Jamie Mitchell, g&#233;ographe et navigateurSoir&#233;e libreVendredi 29 mai 20099h-10h30 &#8211; Ateliers groupes th&#233;matiquesCoordinateurs&#160;:        Pondoland&#160;: Dr. Julien Dellier            Wilderness&#160;: Dr. St&#233;phane H&#233;ritier            Nature-Culture SA&#160;: Pr. Malcolm Draper            Reconstructions&#160;: Dr. Fr&#233;d&#233;ric Richard    10h30-11h - Pause11h-12h30 &#8211; Ateliers groupes th&#233;matiques (suite)12h30-14h - D&#233;jeuner14h-15h30 &#8211; S&#233;ance pl&#233;ni&#232;reSynth&#232;ses des groupes th&#233;matiques15h30-16h &#8211; Pause16h-17h15 &#8211; D&#233;bats conclusifs17h30-19h30 &#8211; Forum des ONGQuel futur pour la Wild-Coast        Animateurs&#160;: Dr. Beno&#238;t Antheaume - Dr. Sylvain Guyot - Dr. Julien Dellier            Participants&#160;: Pr. William Beinart - Dr. Thembela Kepe - Lizile Mniki - Navy Simunkonda    Soir&#233;e libreSamedi 30 Mai 20099h &#8211; D&#233;part pour la journ&#233;e d&#8217;excursionLe plateau de Millevaches, un front &#233;cologique &#224; l&#8217;&#233;chelle du Limousin10h - Rencontre avec des acteurs institutionnels du plateau de Millevaches12h &#8211; D&#233;jeuner &#224; l&#8217;Atelier, Roy&#232;re de Vassivi&#232;relieu de vie, de rencontres et d'initiatives m&#234;lant caf&#233; restaurant, &#233;picerie, manifestations culturelles et festives, biblioth&#232;que, p&#233;pini&#232;re de projets&#8230;15h &#8211; Rencontre avec des acteurs institutionnels du plateau de Millevaches18h &#8211; retour sur LimogesSoir&#233;e LibreContact&#160;: Dani&#232;le Bierne - Service recherche colloquesDaniele.bierne@unilim.fr &#8211; 05 55 43 56 36Colloque international de g&#233;ographie politique de l&#8217;environnementLes &#171;&#160;fronts &#233;cologiques&#160;&#187; entre terr(itoir)es, paysage et r&#233;seauxLand(scape), Territories and Networks of Eco-frontiersInvit&#233; d&#8217;honneur : l&#8217;Afrique du Sud27-30 mai 2009Organisation : Sylvain Guyot, Julien DellierUMR CNRS GEOLAB 6042Facult&#233; des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines