What are they and what are the challenges of the Subantarctic Natural Laboratories?

Natural laboratories can be understood as geographically delimited places with unique attributes in which it is possible to study natural processes, both geological and biological, from multiple scientific disciplines. Due to its diversity of ecosystems, Chile is a territory with the presence, and potential existence, of several natural laboratories. A well-known example corresponds to astronomy, whose development is associated with the presence of advanced human capital, infrastructure, institutionality, but also due to a privileged setting where the aridity of the Atacama desert and the height of the Andes participate.

Under the project NODE Subantarctic Natural Laboratories (financed by ANID), directed by Dr. Laura Sánchez Jardón and executed by the University of Magallanes, Center for Research in Ecosystems of Patagonia, University of Aysén, Pontificia Universidad Católica and Universidad de La Frontera, Laboratories have been defined Sub-Antarctic Natural Areas such as the extensive interconnected Chilean territories and seabeds (43°-60°S) closest to Antarctica, with a recent and moderate anthropogenic impact compared to other areas of the world, with a polar and more southern distribution in which the Most of the surface is under official protection figures, since geological and biological processes that are highly susceptible to global change occur in this place.

The purpose of addressing scientific work in the southern zone, under the gaze of the Subantarctic Natural Laboratories, has been to promote the articulation of a collaborative network of ecosystem actors in science, technology, knowledge and innovation (CTCi) with the participation of not only academia, but also from the public and private sectors and civil society. This, because scientific activity is not exempt from political, economic, institutional and ethical elements, for example, in the scientific article The politics of a natural laboratory: Claiming territory and governing life in the Galapagos Islandsthe case of the Galapagos Islands is explored, whose natural laboratory is not only configured as a space for the production and validation of knowledge, but also incubates processes of governmentality of certain knowledge with respect to others (expert knowledge versus local knowledge) and of life and death (invasive species compared to native species).

Article: The most perfect natural laboratory in the world: Making and knowing Hawaii National Park, critically addresses the case of the Hawaii National Park, indicating that national parks were created that facilitated the entry of scientific communities into the territory, but made it difficult and limited the access and participation of the local communities themselves. The recommendation that was extracted from said study refers to the need for natural laboratories to implement shared agendas among the different actors that comprise it, whether they are from the academic-scientific, public, private, and civil society sectors. Natural laboratories must be conveners in different ways, since non-scientific actors also have expectations about the territory that, now, is delimited under the Natural Laboratory conceptualization.

In the Chilean case, in 2021 the following is published: Natural laboratories in emerging countries and comparative advantages in science: evidence from Chile de Aguilera and Larraín, where the “indirect positive effects” for other non-scientific or academic actors in the constitution of Natural Laboratories are revealed. An example of this is the valorization of the territories, scientific education, the promotion of the country’s image, the development of economic activities related to Natural Laboratories such as scientific tourism, small specialized industries and logistic services.

In the case of the Subantarctic Natural Laboratories, the project implied carrying out diagnostic studies with a strong emphasis on citizen participation, where eight major challenges were identified for the work of these laboratories in the southern macrozone: 1. Institutional challenges and governance for Subantarctic Natural Laboratories in relation to other instruments and actors, 2. To promote capacity building processes in science, technology, knowledge and innovation for Subantarctic Natural Laboratories. 3. Have research and innovation agendas on local problems, 4. Promote instances for the dissemination and social appropriation of science. 5 Articulation with the productive sector protecting the environment. 6. Sizing and taking measures on the multiple impacts of productive sectors on anthropic activities, 7. Locally addressing the global scenario of climate change and 8. Ethically addressing community relations with indigenous peoples located in the southern macrozone.

Despite the multiple challenges, the Subantarctic Natural Laboratories roadmap, in this current version, is focusing actions, projects and initiatives on three large CTCI Programs: the first of them corresponds to the Science Education and Social Appropriation Program, focused on activating processes of socialization of knowledge generated within the framework of the Subantarctic Natural Laboratories. He Science in the Territory Program, whose purpose is to articulate the Subantarctic Natural Laboratories with actors from the science, technology, knowledge and innovation ecosystem, especially actors from the public sector and civil society. Finally, the Sustainable Development Programwhose focus is to promote and complement processes of economic and social development, but considering the care of the environment and social welfare.

For now, Chile has the great challenge of activating and encouraging the work of natural laboratories throughout the country, and simultaneously, in not conceiving these laboratories as spaces separated from development processes. Science, technology, knowledge and innovation are attached to social welfare, but how these processes of virtuous articulation are generated is a task that not only concerns the academy but also society in general, part of this path we intend to continue traveling through of the Subantarctic Natural Laboratories.

Dr. Patricio Padilla Navarro
Institute of Local and Regional Development of the University of La Frontera.
Coordinator, Roadmap. Subantarctic Natural Laboratories Node Project.