The protection of biodiversity which had long been bounded up with emblematic “natural” spaces is now increasingly focusing on ordinary biodiversity and rural agricultural land and forests as well as on urban and peri-urban spaces. Such ordinary biodiversity has its own specific features which make it both a relative and uncertain topic of research. Traditional nature protection instruments do not work on this dimension of the planet’s living tissue and new tools need to be deployed in conjunction with regional and local stakeholders that will provide long-term sustainable solutions for biodiversity and for local and regional development more generally. Research conducted on the Plateau de Millevaches explores the possibilities for shared caring for this biodiversity.