The whole period covered by the two LIFE programmes corresponds to a clear change in the awareness and mobilisation of communities in the Dordogne basin, through their joined forces within the Interdepartmental Public Establishment of Dordogne, which took up the role of leader in the protection of the sturgeon.  They try to strike a chord with the work carried out by associations ( ADES), up to now working in isolation, and to supply means to researchers, while assisting them in targeting their research priorities on subjects likely to better mobilise managers (opening up of work carried out at sea, reports on the states of natural river and estuary environments).  However, these years of effort have not brought a satisfactory solution to the challenge of saving the species since its last population in the wild continues inexorably to deteriorate, with numbers estimated at just a few hundred spawners and sub-adults at sea.

The mobilisation of some politicians, in particular Senator Bernard Cazeau, who took up the idea of a European and national plan of action, the awareness of fisheries regarding the damage that their image might incur should they not carry out responsible fishing, opened up the way some years later for new partners to join the fray.  With the technical support of EPIDOR, Cemagref, ADES and other national partners and other European countries (IGB, World Sturgeon Conservation Society, Society to Save the Sturgeon, UICN), WWF France took the issue to an international level and in 2005 this led to the species being listed in Appendix I of the Convention on Migratory Species in France in 2005 and the involvement of the Council of Europe through the Bern Convention, with a view to setting up a European rehabilitation plan that was adopted by the Parties to the Convention at the end of 2007.  The same year, the Secretary of State for Ecology, Mrs Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, decided to set up a national rehabilitation programme for the species.  Through the coordination of the National Committee of Maritime Fisheries ( CNPMEM), the fishing world has, since 2006, mobilised its forces to limit by-catch mortality of wild sturgeon.  Fishermen, informed on the conservation of the species and its protection, are called upon to put any captured specimens back into the water.  Fishing authorities, aware of European requirements concerning controls, must endeavour to have current regulations adhered to.

Since 2008, the actions carried out by the CNPEM have been extended to the coastal waters of our European neighbours to work hand-in-hand and develop the synergy of similar initiatives taken by Belgian fisheries: the sturgeon does not have any borders in its marine phase.