Landscape Designer

If you run a landscaping business (entreprise de paysage) in France and use plant protection products, you need both a personal Certiphyto certificate and a company-level agrément (phytosanitary approval). The agrément requires certification by an accredited body and professional liability insurance. Without it, you cannot purchase or apply phytopharmaceutical products for clients.

No specific diploma is required to start a general landscaping business covering garden design, planting and green space maintenance. However, if your work involves phytopharmaceutical or biocidal products, each person handling them must hold a valid Certiphyto. The QualiPaysage certification, while not mandatory, is often required for public contracts and helps demonstrate your professional competence.

Required Qualifications

  • Landscape design consultant (paysagiste concepteur): Diploma certifying cultural, scientific and technical training in landscape design (DE de paysagiste, landscape architecture degrees)
  • Construction and development work: BPA "Travaux des aménagements paysagers", CAPA "Jardinier paysagiste", BP/Bac Pro/BTSA "Aménagements paysagers", professional license in landscape development, DE de paysagiste, or three years of professional experience in EU/EEA
  • Maintenance and use of phytopharmaceutical/biocidal products: Individual certificate obtained after appropriate training, knowledge verification test, or specific diploma listed in the decree of August 29, 2016
  • Good standing requirements: No prohibition to manage or direct a company, and no conviction for certain crimes or offenses

Procedure and Formalities

  • Business registration: Formalities according to the legal nature of the business
  • Registration of articles of incorporation: With the business tax service (SIE) if the act includes a specific operation or if the form requires it
  • Prior certification (use of phytopharmaceutical products): Audit conducted by a certifying body to verify the conditions for holding the individual certificate
  • License application: With the regional prefect of the registered office, requiring prior certification, professional liability insurance, recognition by a third-party organization, and monitoring contract for certification maintenance
  • EU/EEA nationals: Prior declaration with the CMA (construction work) or regional director of food, agriculture and forestry (phytopharmaceutical products) for free provision of services; qualification recognition request with CMA for freedom of establishment

Specific Obligations

  • Health monitoring: Compliance with provisions relating to monitoring, prevention and control of health hazards (articles L. 201-1 et seq. of the Rural and Maritime Fisheries Code)
  • Insurance: Annual copy of professional liability insurance certificate to regional prefect (use of phytopharmaceutical products); ten-year and two-year insurance for landscape construction work
  • Safety and accessibility standards: Compliance with ERP (public-access establishment) standards if premises are open to the public
  • Young workers: Prohibition to assign certain dangerous work (work at height, scaffolding, pressurized equipment, confined spaces)
  • Personal services: Possibility of registration with Direccte for gardening work in this context