The Circulation of an International Norm and the Restructuring of the State: Compared Analysis of “Ecosystem Services” in Madagascar and in France

The notion of “ecosystem services” has been developed since the 1970s in Anglo Saxon scientific arenas and has been popularized with the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment-MA. Since the MA, the topic of ecosystem services has become the main reference for international and national conservation policies. The paper aims to compare the reception of the concept of ecosystem services and his tools in France, a developed country which is known to be an interventionist state, and in Madagascar, a developing countries, whose GDP per capita is one of the lowest in the world. Using policy transfer studies (PTS), the paper examines the role of states in international public policy transfers. The international transfer of norms questioned the sovereignty of States and their capacity to design and implement their environmental policies. Transfers are more or less voluntary and thus environment is a particularly politicized issue. The analysis also deals with the different actors involved in the reception of an international policy norms and instruments in a developing country and in a developed country, and analyzing the dynamics of these different actors politicization.