Coastal Protection Agency

Created in 1975, the Conservatoire du Littoral is a state-owned public institution. It buys land along maritime and lake shorelines to preserve it permanently and provide public access. The land is restored and developed to maintain the biological, aesthetic and identity-related wealth of the coastline.

The Conservatoire du Littoral also supports changes to shorelines associated with climate change and natural hazards, always taking care to leave as much to nature as possible.

Key figures (January 2017)

  • 193,275 hectares preserved, i.e. 1,450 km of coastline (13% of coastal areas).
  • 3,000 hectares acquired per year on average (1 act of sale per day).
  • 700 sites.
  • 50 million euros a year – the budget allocated to the acquisition and development of sites.
  • 180 officers at the Conservatoire du Littoral.
  • 250 site managers.
  • 900 coastline wardens.
  • 40 million visitors per year.

The acquisition

In opinion polls, the Conservatoire du Littoral often comes out on top as ‘the French people’s favourite public institution’.
When sites are acquired, the Conservatoire du Littoral entrusts the management, organisation, reception facilities and monitoring thereof to local authorities, public institutions or environmental associations.
This delegation of management, governed by long-term agreements, allows the Conservatoire du Littoral to devote most of its human and financial resources to its primary mission of acquiring land.


In this spirit, the Domaine du Rayol Association has been managing the site since its acquisition in 1989. It is up to the Association to find the ways and means to manage the Domaine.