Between 1978 and 1989, a nationally and internationally acclaimed nature conservation model was created in Andalusia. It would be the result of a complex political process, marked by contradictory tendencies (the transition from Francoism to parliamentarism, from centralism to autonomy), social-environmental activism, and disputes among professional disciplines (biology, engineering, geography, among others). Using qualitative interviews, hemerographic and documentary sources, we explain this model, its vision and instruments, as a political-administrative apparatus that result from personal relationships and the confrontation between political currents within the ruling party in Andalusia (PSOE) in the context of rising environmentalist demands and movement.