SUMMARY Initially conceived as human-exclusion zones (the segregative model), protected areas are more and more often established within a management framework that integrates conservation and development projects with multiple partnerships and encourages engagement with local stakeholders (the integrative model). In this study, we investigated the conservation attitudes and practices of management staff in the network of nature reserves (NRs) in France. We found that conservation practices, such as law enforcement, habitat management, environmental education and partnerships, and the socio–cultural and psychological profiles of their managers show a wide distribution along a segregative to integrative gradient. Our results indicate that while the policy of these protected areas is still structured by a segregative cliché, in practice, many managers implement a more integrated approach. This coexistence of the two approaches reflects a general pattern of evolution of nature protection thought and the institutionalization of NRs, as well as demonstrating the adaptation of NRs to their local contexts and how they function, within the surrounding landscape, as a single but complex social–ecological system.