Abstract

In the south-central Chilean city of Concepción, an irregular urban settlement named ‘Agüita de la Perdiz’ (Partridge Creek) built on the slopes of Cerro Caracol (Snail Hill) has become an emblematic neighborhood, located within an urban biodiversity hotspot. The richness and biodiversity of the Caracol landscape have been used in different ways by the inhabitants of Concepción, but in the case of the Agüita de la Perdiz residents it is also part of their way of life, representing an unusual relationship between people and nature in urban spaces. We analyze the relationship between the community and the hill, with its forest, fauna, waters, and recreational areas; the successive territorial dispossessions from nature and the various conflicts involved in the installation and operation of the Metropolitan Park, which although created to protect the hill, has conflicted with the local users; and the partial reconstruction efforts led by community members to recompose their relationship with the hill. The case problematizes urban bioculture, from a political ecology of commons prespective, and co-management approaches for conservation.