Multi-level processes and the institutionalization of forest conservation discourses: Insights from Natura 2000

The implementation of the Natura 2000 network of protected areas has been controversial in the EU member states, leading to both conflict and collaboration during planning processes. Such multi-level processes frame the problems and solutions associated with nature conservation policy in specific ways. This article examines how forest conservation is conceptualised by different stakeholders at different levels of governance and investigates whether local discourses can lead to institutional change. We analyse two empirical cases, one of collaborative planning and one of conflict, which emerged in the implementation of Natura 2000 in Soria, Spain. While the dominant discourse draws on scientific rationality, local level discourses draw on local knowledge referring to rights-based and hierarchial rationalities. We found that civil servants' discourses were most complementary with the dominant discourse and enabled an institutional transition between conservation paradigms accommodating habitat conservation and as well as sustainable forest management. Although discourses on participation opened up a window of opportunity for local framings on conservation to become institutionalized, tensions between communicative and hierarchical rationalities jeopardised this institutionalization. Counter-discourses drawing on rights-based rationality demanding increased control over forests were less likely to become institutionalized.