The conservation of biodiversity in protected areas: comparing the presentation of legal innovations in the national and the regional press

Abstract

Legal innovation is responsible for major transformations in societies. Taking the press as a mediator between the national and local levels, this article addresses the role it plays in the presentation of new laws governing protected areas. A content analysis comparing the representation in the national and the regional presses of both the Natura 2000 laws and the conservation of the Iberian lynx shows two distinct and pragmatic reconstructions of these themes. The national press is more aligned with sustainability goals, while overlooking the difficulties of implementing the law in concrete contexts. The regional press emphasizes the practical difficulties the laws create for the protected areas, using emotionally charged arguments. The conclusions discuss how a social psychology of legal innovation may be relevant to understanding the psychosocial processes involved in the progress of legal innovation and how identity and group processes are involved in the re-signification and contestation of laws.