Abstract
Artificial light at night is a new threat to biodiversity on a global scale and is now recognized as a pollution in its own right. From a cultural point of view, the erosion of nocturnal darkness by artificial lighting contributes to the extinction of the experience of nature. In the insular territory of La Réunion, one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, the challenges in the fight against light pollution are so high that there is a great deal of friction between artificial light at night and areas with a high level of naturalness, where major ecological issues are at stake. However, there is still the ‘fénoir’, a living memory of the ‘natural’ night, accompanied by practices that testify to the importance of darkness in the life, uses and imagination of the Creole population, as well as their unique relationship with non-human life. In this context, the FENOIR project aims to produce situated knowledge that will enable public action to overcome the aporia of an overly eco-centric approach to the ‘light problem’. This will enable to respond to the challenge of territorializing a holistic preservation of the nocturnal environment. In order to achieve this objective, a broad interdisciplinary approach is needed (i) to study, at different socio-spatial scales, the socio-cultural practices and representations of the Reunionese night, the attachment and sensitivity to the components of the island’s nocturnal environment, and the modes of governance of the territorial system that establishes darkness as a resource; (ii) to study, at different spatio-temporal scales, the structures and dynamics of light pressure, the vulnerability of natural environments to artificial light at night, and the uses of darkness by wildlife and how these uses are affected by artificial light. The FENOIR project will therefore bring together the different systems and repertoires of knowledge on the nocturnal social-ecological systems of La Réunion and inform environmental public policies.