The Vosges Regional Natural Park

The Ballons des Vosges Regional Nature Park has achieved a veritable exploit, in bringing together the people of three regions, Franche-Comté, Alsace and Lorraine, overcoming all the administrative and cultural differences to create, on the basis of the name used for mountains in all three regions, the 'ballon', the leading French park in terms of the number of villages and towns involved (they number almost 200), the second in terms of the number of inhabitants and the fourth in surface area with 287,000 hectares!

In terms of the environment, the Park's initial desire was to increase the knowledge that was available regarding the natural heritage, before then moving on to offer measures of protection: creating forests for the capercaillie or rehabilitating major sites such as the Ballon d’Alsace.
In addition to the safeguarding of natural resources, rural development also involves providing aid to farmers, in particular in the valleys of Haute-Saône, to help them to conserve the environment and keep the mountain living the way it always has done.

The promotion of the historical heritage from the mining industry (theme trails at Giromagny and Planchers les Mines), or the former hydraulic industry (Lepuix Gy, Servance) is not only a benefit from the point of view of tourism, but it is also a means of reconciling the inhabitants with their region.

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