Principles of Local Development and the European Leader Programme Applied to Fishing Areas: What are the Specific Features? Comparative Approach of Two Lags in France

The article focuses on the implementation of the European LEADER program in the specific context of fishing areas. Complementing the European Common Fisheries Policy, whose sectoral objective is to preserve fishery resources while ensuring economic competitiveness, this program introduces a cross-cutting and territorialized approach to development. It thus offers local Stakeholders greater legitimacy in implementing development actions and greater freedom to choose their development strategy by financing projects where the sectoral dimension takes a back seat to more territorial and cross-cutting issues. Beyond the traditional sectoral axes, the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund thus supports the sustainable development of areas dependent on fishing and aquaculture, in line with the local development approach and within the framework of participatory mechanisms. Although this approach has only recently been applied in fishing areas (unlike in rural areas, where it was established in 1991), the international scientific community has already shown keen interest in the issue, particularly through empirical research. However, although these studies provide valuable insights into the successes and failures of implementing the LEADER program specifically in fishing areas, comparative research between “traditional rural” LEADER and “fishing” LEADER is very rare. The aim is therefore to address this gap by analyzing, within the same region, the differences and similarities in the application of the LEADER approach across fishing and rural areas. Using a comparative framework based on statistical and cartographic analysis of projects carried out during the 2014-2020 period in two local action groups in the Hérault department in France (one rural, the other linked to fishing), the paper aims to show that the socio-economic structures of the territories influence the different ways in which the LEADER approach is implemented.