This is what the 2018 National Natural Sciences Prize winner expressed during his visit to the ULS. Dr. Jaksic, a pioneer in the area of ​​Ecology and who has permanently contributed to the development and strengthening of research in this area of ​​knowledge, spoke about the challenges of Ecology in Chile and the current funding crisis due to which crosses science in our country.

Recently, the National Prize winner was invited by the University of La Serena to give a keynote talk within the framework of the activities of the II Binational Congress of Scientific Research Chile-Argentina, and a presentation at the Department of Biology entitled “Long-term studies in Ecology in Chile”, where students and academics participated. Ecology has developed as a solid area of ​​research and development at the ULS, which has resulted in the creation of the Doctorate program in Applied Biology and Ecology and the Doctorate and Master's programs in Biological Sciences, mention of Arid Zones, all accredited by the National Accreditation Commission.

Professor Fabián Jaksic (66) has been one of the pioneers in the use of experimental methods in Ecology, contributing strongly to the training of people in this area. He has dedicated a large part of his career to social needs, participating in more than 67 environmental impact studies, as well as consulting for the State, private companies and non-governmental organizations.

"Due to circumstances specific to the country, I had to be one of the first generation of scientific ecologists in the country (...), I had to receive scientific training (in Ecology) at a time when there were no degrees in ecology, nor master's degrees, much less doctorates,” he said.

After graduating as a biologist from the University of Chile, he headed to the United States to specialize and upon returning in 1982 he was part of a group of no more than 6 pioneering scientists in the area, including Professor Julio Gutiérrez, from the University of Chile. Department of Biology of the ULS, who is currently an academic and among his many works has at least 18 scientific articles published with the National Award.

The National Award winner has dedicated his life to the study of Community Ecology, that is, “the study of all the interactions of all animals and all plants in a certain physical place”, focusing on the study of vertebrates, animals and terrestrial environments. , which has resulted in more than 200 scientific articles and 10 textbooks. The latter is something that prof. Jaksic highlights: “I am not only interested in reaching foreign peers, but I am also interested in influencing the training of biologists in Chile (…) all my texts except one are in Spanish,” stated the professional.

30 years working in the region

His studies have focused on predator-prey relationships; in how animal communities are structured; modeling population dynamics; the El Niño phenomenon, which has led him to work actively in the Coquimbo Region for more than 30 years, publishing more than 30 scientific articles from this work, 17 of which have been in conjunction with the ULS; and what biodiversity is for, that is, how self-sustaining systems are formed and that in turn are capable of resisting human pressures. Currently the prof. Jaksic also dedicates a good part of his time to participating in the management of public policies on the environment, biodiversity and climate change, among others.

Pending tasks of ecology in our country

Jaksic pointed out that by choosing Chile to want to be a developed country and making the commitment to be the 34th member of the OECD, it implies having higher quality public policies, since we choose to compare ourselves with the most advanced countries in the world. “This sets a fairly high bar for us and leads us to have environmental legislation that has to be very in line with the legislation of other countries,” he indicated. He says that this has led us to have legislation that is very advanced. Specifically, due to the free trade agreement with Canada, the Basic Environmental Law was created in 1994, which served until 2010 when other environmental entities were created, such as the Ministry of the Environment, the Superintendency of the Environment, the Environmental Assessment Service and Environmental Courts. “In 16 years (…) a formally very good institutional framework has been created, which fails in what institutional frameworks typically fail (…), we fail in oversight because we do not have a large enough State,” he added.

Chilean science funding crisis

When asked about his opinion about the current scientific panorama after the large cut announced for the 2019 budget, he stated that he sees things “in an ant color, from brown to dark.” The prof. Jaksic believes that the great lack that Chile has in terms of funding for science has become more visible since we are in the OECD, since we only allocate 0.38% of GDP, which leaves us in last place on the list of countries. , “the budget allocated to science as a percentage of GDP is very low, I would say it is almost shameful, we look bad compared to the other OECD countries,” he concluded.