The scientists and philosophers involved in the creation and implementation of the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve are firmly committed to putting their research into practice. Part of this work involves the definition of the new trans-discipline of “biocultural conservation,” which requires overcoming significant challenges such as “translating” between academic disciplines, languages, cultures and ways of perceiving the world.

In this effort, Drs. Ricardo Rozzi and Francisca Massardo, as well as others from the CHBR, have been working for the past few years to create a seminal body of work that will serve as a foundation for environmental philosophy in Latin America and for biocultural conservation in general. Now a special edition of the journal Revista Ambiente y Desarrollo has publish these texts in Spanish and included commentaries from well-known thinkers from the realms of policy, ecology and philosophy from throughout the Americas and Europe. To learn more visit the CIPMA website, download the pdfs from the journal directly with the link above, or read the Introduction (in Spanish).

Dr. Ricardo Rozzi and colleagues’ article in the April edition of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment has already received attention in various news outlets.

Now, in addition to achieving the cover of this highly prestigious and widely distributed journal, Dr. Rozzi has been interviewed for an ESA podcast that highlights the journal’s most important publications.

The attention Rozzi and his colleagues bring to bear on the previously unrecognized biodiversity found in non-vascular flora in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve is used as an illustrative example of how cultural viewpoints (“lenses”) influence not only what we study and value, but what we chose to prioritize and conserve.

To learn more, visit ESA, read the article or listen to the podcast.

See local press in Radio Polar.

From UNT Research News Highlights >>>

UNT and the Chilean Institute for Ecology and Biodiversity (IEB) are using a 10-year, $15 million grant to build a high-tech field station in Chile’s Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve that will support researchers and students working to protect, preserve and sustain one of the last true wilderness areas in the world. <continue reading>

In a public ceremony presided over by President Michelle Bachelet and Minister of Education Yansa Provoste, the Chilean Science Commission awarded the prestigious “Basal Financing” awards to the 8 institutions chosen as Centers of Scientific and Technical Excellence. The funding will provide 10 years of support and is part of Chile’s Innovation Program meant to promote development in key areas that will affect the nation’s future stability and wellbeing.

Dr. Mary Kalin received the award on behalf of the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, which was also represented by researchers Drs. Juan Armesto, Ricardo Rozzi, Pablo Marquet, Julio Gutiérrez and Andrés Mansilla who represent the IEB’s network of universities, including the Catholic University, the University of Chile, the University of Magallanes, the University of La Serena and the University of Concepción. Part of the new funds will also be used to implement a national network of socio-ecological research sites, taking advantage of the IEB’s 3 existing study sites in the Omora Park-Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve, Senda Darwin Biological Station and Fray Jorge National Park.

To see an article in Spanish, visit the CONICYT site.

OSARA President Dr. Christopher Anderson will give the keynote address at the University of North Texas Biology Graduate Student Association’s Annual Symposium. The invitation to participate in the “Annual Research Day in Life Sciences” continues the existing work between OSARA and UNT and offers a new possibility to strengthen collaborations with science graduate students.

Anderson’s talk, entitled “Biocultural Conservation: A ‘Southern’s’ Perspective from the South” will focus on the history and existing programs in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve. Dr. Anderson will also use this case study and his personal experience to show how students interested in science and conservation can create and implement meaningful programs and initiatives, not just at the ends of the earth, but anywhere they find themselves.