Created in 2006, the status of Natural Marine Park (NMP) aims to promote a sustainable and participatory management of coastal and marine ecosystems, in metropolitan France and overseas French territories. In January 2010, the first oversea NMP was launched in Mayotte. Focused on the implementation process of this NMP, this work discusses the participatory nature of this process and its degree of innovation, within the framework of marine and coastal environment management. Three key issues were examined : First, the different stakeholders involved in the project were identified in order to estimate to which extent the implementation of the NMP took them into account as well as their specific relation to the littoral and marine territories. Then, the consultation methods of the preliminary study mission were analysed to assess their degree of innovation. Finally, the mandatory conditions to achieve a genuine involvment of local stakeholders in the implementation of the NMP were pointed out.
