[DREAL OCCITANIA] Communes concerned by a massif in the Great Southwest

In France, two official and administrative boundaries of the mountains overlap. The so-called mountain areas, on the one hand (they are part of a sectoral approach dedicated primarily to agriculture by recognising and compensating for natural handicaps) and on the other hand, the massifs built to promote the self-development of mountain areas. The massif encompasses not only mountain areas, but also areas immediately adjacent to them: foothills or even plains if the latter ensure the continuity of the massif. This enlargement takes into account interactions and exchanges between highland areas and the plains, allowing for more relevant spatial planning projects. Under the “mountain” law, there are six massifs: Vosges, Jura, Alps, Massif Central, Pyrenees and Corsica. There are also three massifs in the overseas departments: Martinique, Guadeloupe and Réunion. Three island massifs do not have planning stations because their development does not require an interregional policy, since the departmental boundaries are confused with that of the regions (Guadeloupe and Martinique) or are confused with that of the territorial authority responsible for planning (the case of Corsica). The concept of massif is a French-only approach, allowing an administrative body competent to carry out mountain policy. This notion of massif is to be distinguished from the concept of mountain.