The market of seeds for revegetation: Challenges of the mobilization of scientists and operators

To limit the loss of biodiversity that is currently happening on a global scale, environmental repair activities are being carried out. They involve services and supply markets (revegetation, seeds), value chains from prescription to realization, and a set of organizational and technical practices. Within these market agencements, the stakeholders follow different logics and interests, which can diverge and pose a risk to the natural elements. To deal with such a divergence of interests, it is important to take a closer look at the different logics of action. In this paper, we wonder how, in an open socio-technical agencement whose environmental relevance is controversial, do the values and justifications of the different stakeholders found, perform and challenge the agencement. For this, we mobilize the framework of economies of worth and refer to the concept of valuation to examine how the different worths operate and express in the valuation processes. We study the case of revegetation seeds, revegetation consisting in sowing seed mixtures to reconstitute vegetation. In the French Alps, 600 to 800 hectares of altitude meadows and lawns, mainly in ski areas, are altered and revegetated annually, almost exclusively with non-local seeds poorly adapted to these environments. To limit the risks linked to the introduction of these seeds, stakeholders of scientific ecology and biodiversity conservation organize to develop the use of seeds of local origin. They strive to influence the market agencement by modifying the criteria of seeds valuation. They operate in the context of a market agencement that mainly values the technical and financial dimensions of seeds and revegetation. Different worths then meet, struggle and to some extent take into account each other, which could lead to forms of alignment or conciliation in the revegetation agencement.