Presentation short abstract

In Chilean Patagonia, scientific infrastructures and nature-based tourism constitute a top-down green governance regime that transform the region into both a natural laboratory and a tourist showcase, generating unequal socio-environmental effects and new forms of eco-extractivism.

Presentation long abstract

In a global context where sustainability operates both as an ethical principle and as a horizon for green growth, Chilean Patagonia is increasingly shaped by environmental policies that intertwine scientific infrastructures and nature-based tourism. At the territorial scale, this alignment contributes to framing Patagonia as a new frontier of green development at the “end of the world”, sustaining a bubble of scientific and tourist investments and reconfiguring territorial uses and values. This configuration becomes particularly tangible in Torres del Paine, an emblematic site where conservation frameworks, environmental expertise and premium tourism intersect.

The proliferation of scientific outposts (Dumoulin et al., 2023) generates diagnostics, vulnerability assessments and instruments that reinforce the portrayal of a singular and fragile ecosystem requiring expert supervision and managed access. These knowledge practices circulate through certification schemes, promotional framework and visitor facilities, underpinning upscale ecotourism exemplified by the park’s luxury lodges. Such dynamics contribute to symbolic eco-extractivism (Aliste et al., 2024), whereby nature is objectified and valorised.

Supported by state agencies, NGOs and international conservation philanthropies, this top-down governance redistributes benefits in uneven ways. Drawing on my doctoral research, the analysis of Torres del Paine highlights rising land values, restrictive access regulations, and structural dependence on seasonal tourism as pressures that significantly reshape the lived conditions of local communities. Situated within the broader Patagonian model, this case offers critical insight into the contradictions of green capitalism (Nunez et al., 2023) and the uneven socio-environmental geographies produced by contemporary frameworks for governing tourism from above.