Publicly funded research: A participative experience from the Chilean Native Forest Research Fund

The concept of public sphere, as put forward by Jürgen Habermas, is an ideal that is difficult to perceive in day-to-day practice. This paper attempts to find, through the study of a specific process of public research fund allocation in the native forest sector of Chile, an approximation of Habermas' public sphere. Chilean Native Forest Legislation has created policy instruments that encourage the participation of civil society in the determination of native forest policies, and established the Native Forest Research Fund, which is instrumental to the application of regulations. Examining the process of research priority setting and the Native Forest Research Fund reveals evidence of communicative action — action oriented at reaching understandings and not personal benefits; supporting the Habermasian ideal. However, strategic behavior of participants from civil society in the process of managing the research fund is also found. Our results offer a starting point towards achieving the Habermasian ideal within forestry-related policy processes in Chile.