Raoul Beunen, Kristof Van Assche and Martijn Duineveld

In this article we present the results of a study towards the reality effects of discourses affecting the implementation of Natura 2000 in the Netherlands. The Dutch case shows how fast deinstitutionalization of conservation policies can take place. Traditions of conservation are disrupted as an unintended consequence of international policy. This study shows that conservationists and others involved in nature conservation should pay more attention to the ways in which conservation needs and practices are represented and institutionalized, how these representations become embedded in more general narratives and how the new institutions are bound to be gamed and re-narrated themselves.

The article can be downloaded from the website of Land Use Policy