Quantitative approach to the language of environmental interpretation in a protected site

Abstract

This paper analyzes the relative importance of three groups of linguistic terms (phenosystemic, cryptosystemic and others) used in the texts and audios of four visitor centers in the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park. The first two groups match the two ecosystem components implied in the landscape concept proposed by professor Fernando González Bernáldez.

The work is based on the conviction that environmental interpretation - not personalised - often gives a distorted picture of how nature works. This is largely due to the language used, which often reports almost exclusively on perceptible, conspicuous and socially emblematic components, ignoring the web of imperceptible processes and phenomena (physical, biological and cultural) that, nevertheless, constitute the essence of ecosystem functioning and that support the values that society wishes to preserve.

The results of the study support the aforementioned hypothesis, highlighting the disproportionate importance of phenosystemic terms (easily perceptible) versus cryptosystemic terms (imperceptible by the senses), transmitting a simple and incomplete idea of Nature, focused on the structural components and ignoring the web of functional relationships. This circumstance may be conditioning people's evaluation of their environment, as well as environmental management approaches and decisions. We propose a change in interpretative programmesthat incorporates a more balanced, systemic and integrating language, more coherent with the complexity of ecosystem functioning.