The international symposium, “The Ocean, a Natural Laboratory: Insights and Challenges of Knowledge in the Territory,” included a presentation by Prof. Dr. Esther Turnhout of the University of Twente, the Netherlands, who thanked the invitation and highlighted the importance of Chile. Natural laboratories around the world, in addition to the work being done by the Central and North Ocean Natural Laboratories node.
Participatory governance, the integration of multiple knowledge systems, and the return of results to communities were key topics guiding discussion at the international symposium “The Ocean is a Natural Laboratory: Visions and Challenges of Knowledge in the Territory,” an event organized by Hu. Node Lab Northern Ocean Nature Centeralong with the eight institutions associated with the project, which he leads Catholic University of the North (UCN) Coquimbo headquarters, through Public Policy Institute.
“It’s a very exciting initiative in trying to reconcile knowledge with action, not only on land but also in the ocean, which of course has a level of complexity and uncertainty that is unprecedented. I think for people who have done most of their work in social or terrestrial systems, it’s hard to understand how much things That we don’t know about the ocean, so these uncertainties and the risks and the complexity of human actors and non-humans make this very exciting,” said Dr Turnhout.
Challenges in co-production
Highlighting the challenges of the interdisciplinary work developed through Node, as well as identifying different ways to promote it based on the multiple experiences of other projects, was one of the goals of this seminar, an example in which Dr. -glad. Professor at the Institute of Biology of the Federal University of Bahia, and Coordinator of the National Institute of Science and Technology in Interdisciplinary and Interdisciplinary Studies in Brazil; He explained the challenges that exist in scientific work with regional communities, noting the importance of creating a truly participatory process in which both parties participate horizontally.
“There is injustice in the ecosystem, because we are not able to take into account other societies and other peoples, and we can only see what matters to us and treat it as data and we do not care what these societies around the world think, and also do we really participate in the process of knowledge integration or That we treat it as a source of data? We always see everything from our own point of view, and this should worry us, and we should try to move towards a truly participatory process,” he said.
In the face of these exposed challenges, the President of the National Federation of Artisanal Fishers of Chile, Zoila Bustamante, stressed the need to move forward while maintaining a permanent dialogue with the actors living in the coastal region. “We can have a dialogue together to learn about the different realities, there is real knowledge we have and the scientific knowledge of those who came before us and it must be combined to make it something good for everyone,” the CONAPACH president stressed.
Meanwhile, Dr. Turnhout noted the ongoing challenge of the science-policy nexus to effect tangible changes in management and biodiversity, and in response to environmental problems. “We have seen a more participatory change in science, on many issues where knowledge and policy practices come together, and in many cases there are disagreements and we see participation as a solution to be able to face the context, where science and technology are applied in order to be able to face the demands of the actors,” he said. political and social, as well as the ability to organize good relations between science, politics and society.
challenges in time
For his part d. Stefan Gilcic. The Director of the Millennium Institute of Sociology and Coastal Ecology (SECOS) provided his insights on one of the other challenges highlighted at the conference, on the tenure of a decade to achieve co-production processes that allow the use of innovative ocean management measures.
“We can’t pretend that projects that aim to improve sustainability, that work with different kinds of knowledge, sometimes with one kind or the other, have the same time cycles as the time cycles for science funding. I think the blessing of these decades is that they change some of those time cycles that They are often discrete.”It is difficult to implement participatory processes with a three-year research project,” said the director of the Milenio Sykos Institute.
Faced with this situation, Marcelo Olivares, Node Director of the Northern Natural Ocean Laboratory and Alternate Director of IPP-UCN Coquimbo, emphasized collaborative work between regional institutions and communities, with the aim of guiding the world of work.
“It is important to promote and highlight the collaborative efforts of the institutions and the participation of the Territories, in order to give direction and importance to scientific work, thus contributing to the sustainable development of the coastal region, and to the promotion of science, technology, knowledge and innovation about the unique characteristics of the Chilean ocean,” said Ocean Node Director.
