French regional nature parks (Parcs naturels régionaux) have proved to be the most relevant examples of an integrated nature protection in France. They have successfully developed until today, fostered by a strong sense of identity for rural regions under a contractual, voluntary-based management process at inter-communal level. This contribution would like to show, however, that regional parks shall not be considered an innovative structure, since they neither lead the scientific concerns in the field of nature protection, nor anticipate the new goals that are arising on the European environmental scene, among them climate change adaptation in rural areas — a theme that will be analyzed in the present paper. French regional nature parks should rather be seen as a model of smart adaptive governance, thus becoming essential for the future of rural areas by providing expertise that is currently lacking to small-scale management authorities.