To ensure their balance and the quality of life of their residents, urban areas should be surrounded by genuine natural belts. Fortunately, Geneva and its cross-border French-Swiss urban area are blessed with beautiful French mountain ranges: the Jura, the Vuache, the Voirons, and Mont-Salève.

The Geneva Basin consists of a relatively flat plain, almost entirely surrounded by mountain ranges that vary in structure and appearance. Within this mountainous environment, the Salève plays a unique role. Although it does not belong to Swiss territory, it has long been part of the imagination and daily life of Geneva’s city dwellers: its rocks, forests, pastures, and villages embody their alpine reveries. Thus, as suggested by ethnologist B. Crettaz, this mountain can be classified among the “urban mountains” that, beginning in the 18th century, became the object of a genuine craze among a new urban society in search of nature ^[1].

Visitors can enjoy hiking, rock climbing, cross-country skiing, sledding, and paragliding, and stay overnight thanks to the growing range of hotels and tourist accommodations. The exceptional panorama that the Salève offers over the Geneva Plain to the Jura Mountains, and over the Alps to Mont Blanc, as well as its natural diversity, are its main tourist attractions. For many naturalists of that era, it also served as a prime observation site (geology ^[2], paleontology, entomology, and botany, among others), which earned it the reputation as the most studied and described mountain in the world.

Today, the entire region has become urbanized, both in terms of daily life and its physical layout. The Salève is now part of the city and bears the marks of its varied rhythms: “the almost constant rhythm of land development, the daily rhythm of the ebb and flow of commuters, the fleeting and transient rhythm of weekend leisure activities”^[3].

It can thus be viewed as a vast landscaped park, the management of which must aim not only to highlight its natural and cultural potential, but also to address the conflicts that may arise among its various users (particularly residents and visitors).

In fact, depending on whether weather conditions are favorable or unfavorable, waves of hikers, picnickers, and athletes flood the summit of Salève. The high variability of these flows and their tendency to concentrate in both time and space characterize these activities, causing traffic jams on the two access roads to the summit and a sense that the mountain range is being overrun (illegal parking). On the other hand, the growth of recreational activities and private transportation following improvements to road infrastructure has led to the decline of facilities such as the cable car.

FEDRE has not only worked to ensure the cable car’s survival, but has also spearheaded concrete initiatives to promote sustainable transportation on the Salève, such as by introducing free shuttle buses for hikers and outdoor enthusiasts.

To preserve biodiversity, the European Union has created a network of natural sites called “Natura 2000.” The Salève has been part of this network since 2003, as it is home to 17 natural habitats (beech forests, dry grasslands, peat bogs, cliffs, caves, etc.) and 10 species (crested newt, lady’s slipper orchid, greater horseshoe bat, etc.) that are rare at the European level. To preserve this heritage, no additional regulations are planned. The Syndicat Mixte du Salève, together with farmers, foresters, and landowners, carries out management work funded by the European Union and the French government: clearing dry grasslands with orchids, dredging and creating ponds for amphibians, maintaining and creating forest clearings for bats, and cutting back vegetation to expose Lady’s Slippers…

In addition, twelve farmers have signed an agri-environmental and climate measure (AECM) in which they commit to limiting fertilizer use, delaying mowing dates, and preserving some thorny shrubs during brush-clearing operations to promote biodiversity. Finally, inventories of flora and fauna are being conducted to better understand the rare species of the Salève. For example, we now know that there are not eleven but twenty-three species of bats inhabiting the Salève!

All projects requiring authorization within the Natura 2000 area (local urban planning, construction of a forest road, sporting events, etc.) must undergo a prior impact assessment. Finally, the Natura 2000 charter, signed by landowners, operators, or voluntary users, commits them to preserving Natura 2000 habitats and species in exchange for property tax exemptions for the former.