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The “Conservatoire du littoral” (CDL), created in 1975, is a French national agency pursuing a land acquisition policy in order to preserve coastal natural spaces, in partnership with local communities. Forty years later, the CDL is halfway towards reaching its goal of protecting a third of shores by 2050 and published a new long-term strategy in 2015. This paper aims to assess the agency’s policy over the past forty years and to ask what are its prospects. The CDL has succeeded in conducting a concerted and partnership action on coastal areas where tensions and conflicts around land and resources are very high: how and with what results ? And what are the perspectives for the CDL ? Issues are increasing on the French coasts (growing human pressures, land saturation, climate change and coastal risks...). Do the place et the legitimacy acquired by the CDL allow it to play a key-role in favor of a multi-players strategy for natural spaces preservation and sustainable ecosystem management ? Could also its action become more difficult and conflictual ?