Depopulation and rural shrinkage in Subantarctic Biosphere Reserves: envisioning re-territorialization by young people

Abstract

Landscape-scale conservation at the regional level is an important challenge for Biosphere Reserves (BRs), especially those located in areas suffering from depopulation and rural shrinkage. This is the case of the BRs of the southernmost part of Chile, in the Magallanes region. An analysis of the implications of deterritorialization (the radical reduction or disappearance of inhabitants, their traditional ecological practices, and their material and affective links with the territory) is lacking in the literature, particularly in relation to the migration of young people towards other human settlements. This is a critical situation for BRs because there is a tight link between depopulation and the sustainability of socio-ecological systems. Here we discuss, on the one hand, the limitations and negative impacts of repopulation attempts by extractive industries and, on the other, the possibilities of involving rural youth in initiatives that encourage the re-territorialization of ecological practices and knowledge that have been developed by generations of local inhabitants, as a way of promoting bioculturally sustainable modes of re-inhabiting these territories.