Pays Cœur d'Hérault

Reviving agricultural fallow lands for a resilient future.

The Pays Cœur d'Hérault (PCH) is located in the hinterland of Montpellier. Its predominantly rural landscape features a wine-growing plain in the south and hills in the north, historically shaped by pastoral farming. Spanning 130,000 hectares, the landscape is divided into: 68% scrubland and forest, 18% cultivated land (including 10% vineyards), 4% abandoned farmland (6,000 ha), and 3% urban areas, mostly small villages.

Soil and Planning Challenges

Land take has been a long-standing issue in PCH, driven by urban sprawl, scattered buildings on agricultural land, and the expansion of transport, commercial, and recreational infrastructures. Additionally, incentives for renewable energy production, such as photovoltaic plants, are contributing to local pressures on farmland.

Abandoned farmlands face a dual challenge: transforming them into more diversified farming systems (moving beyond monoculture vineyards in the plain) while balancing food, fiber, and biomass production with biodiversity conservation, climate mitigation, and water regulation, including reducing heat stress. Half of the abandoned farmlands in the region have low agronomic potential, making them unsuitable for certain types of food production - such as market gardening - due to poor soil quality and lack of water access.

Soil and Planning Opportunities

PCH is made up of 77 municipalities with a total population of 81,000 residents. The local authority oversees several policies, including strategic urban planning (the SCoT master plan, approved in 2023), climate and energy transition plan, and a local food and agricultural policy, promoting agroecology and short food supply chains.

Ambition for the SPADES project

Within the SPADES project, PCH aims to co-create a planning strategy, a comprehensive participatory vision for the future use of the 6,000 hectares of abandoned farmland. The first step will be a detailed assessment of soil quality and functions, a mapping of the land's potential (especially agronomic). This should guide informed decision-making for future land use.

SPADES also offers an opportunity to support the implementation of the national ZAN law (Zero Net Land Take) at the local level, promoting long-term preservation of open spaces while fostering diversified farming systems and agroecology on abandoned lands. The strategy will be tested on Le Pouget, a municipality involved in an innovative planning tool, which better protects and includes an action plan for agricultural and natural spaces.

The innovation lies in two key aspects:

integrating existing thematic plans for open spaces and soil management, and
co-designing a strategy for the diverse uses of abandoned farmlands with input from a range of stakeholders across soil-related fields, and urban planning. This collaborative approach ensures a holistic solution that addresses the region's environmental, agricultural, and societal needs.