Paper short abstract:

I discuss how urban Chileans form relationships with rural nature in the Chilean Mediterranean-habitat zone. Pervasive views of nature as ugly and degraded are counterbalanced in many people by nostalgic attachment to specific places, species and activities that they experienced as children.

Paper long abstract:

Representations of Mediterranean nature often divide between visions of degradation and the pastoral picturesque, rooted in personal and cultural memories of the rural past. I investigate how urban Chileans understand and form relationships with rural nature in the Mediterranean-habitat zone surrounding Santiago de Chile, with the goal of understanding how biodiversity conservation could be promoted. A typical aspiration of the emerging middle classes is to own a summer house in the country, or to live in a housing development at the semi-rural periphery of Santiago's extensive suburbs. Despite this desire to be in rural landscapes, most people express dislike of the typical Mediterranean habitat because it is "seco" ("dry"). While some people described rural nature as permanently degraded, others blamed perceived degradation on more recent political and economic developments. These negative views were counterbalanced in some people by nostalgic attachment to specific places, species and activities that people knew from periods of time they spent as children in the countryside. Some men showed extensive knowledge of and appreciation for natural history, while women were more likely to speak about typical farm activities and inanimate natural phenomena such as stars or storms, suggesting how different ways of interacting with the environment might affect relationships with nature. Most of the reminisced-about interactions were fleeting or had been lost over time. Though nature in the Mediterranean zone of Chile is considered to lack beauty, charismatic species, culture and history, appeals to personal nostalgia may help to engage urban Chileans with conservation of biodiversity.