International
Society for Ethnobiology
The ISE travels throughout the world with
its congresses, from Brazil to China,
Mexico, India, Kenya and on to New
Zealand. Before each congress, there are
several training courses and workshops
that bring together young professionals
from various countries.
-GJM
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Brazilian
folk art, taken from the
Proceedings of the First
International Congress of
Ethnobiology.
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The
International Society for
Ethnobiology (ISE) was
founded in 1988 in Belém,
Brazil, during the 1st
International Congress of
Ethnobiology. The Congress was
organized by Darrell A. Posey
specifically to begin an
international society of
scientists, environmentalists and
indigenous peoples, to work
together to enhance the
world’s endangered
biological and cultural
diversity. |
The
Declaration of Belém was proclaimed at
the closing of this Congress, and has
served as a guide in ethical practices
for the Society’s members. The
Declaration states that work practices
should lead to equal and meaningful
partnerships between local peoples and
specialists trained in a western
scientific tradition. It represents the
first time that protection of
intellectual property rights for
traditional knowledge is a principal aim
of a scientific society. Return of
information to communities in a useful
form, as well as the necessity of respect
for local customs, practices and
lifestyles, are other essential elements
of the Declaration.
At
the 2nd Congress - organized by Pei
Shengji in Kunming, China in 1990 - the
Kunming Action Plan (KAP) was drawn up.
This established a political agenda for
the ISE, and was especially aimed at
influencing the 1992 United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development
(The Earth Summit) held in Rio de
Janeiro. KAP called for the formation of
a permanent body, to be governed by the
ISE board of directors and known as The
Global Coalition for Biological and
Cultural Diversity. The Global Coalition
began its work to show the inextricable
link between biological and cultural
diversity. One of the major activities
was to organize The Earth Parliament,
which was the principal venue for
indigenous and traditional peoples at the
Earth Summit.
ISE
formalized its membership at its 3rd
Congress in 1992, coordinated by Javier
Caballero in Mexico City. At the 4th
Congress in Lucknow, India - organized by
S.K. Jain in 1994 - the commitment to
education and training was manifest, with
the organization of a series of workshops
and mini-courses on ethnobiology and
natural resource management. The ISE will
meet again in Nairobi, Kenya in September
1996, at which time a Code of Ethics and
Constitution for the ISE will be
discussed. This Code is currently being
developed in conjunction with indigenous
peoples, and under the guidance of a
committee of The Global Coalition. It is
anticipated that these documents will be
celebrated in their final form at the 6th
Congress in 1998, to be hosted by the
Maori Nation in Atearoa, New
Zealand.
‘The
current devastation of native peoples and
the ecological systems that they have
conserved, managed and intimately known
for millennia, require that new and
drastic steps be taken to reorient world
priorities. All channels and
organizations, whether governmental,
non-governmental, professional or
business, must work together to reverse
the current momentum in loss of cultural,
ecological and biological diversity of
this planet ... Ethnobiology seems
uniquely placed to lead the way to this
new understanding, since it bridges
disciplines and cultures through a
practical focus on the implications and
applications of traditional knowledge for
all of humanity.’
. From:
Posey, D. 1990. Introduction. Pages 1-7
in D.A. Posey and W.L. Overal, editors,
Ethnobiology: its Implications and
Applications. Proceedings of the First
International Congress of Ethnobiology
(Belém, 1988), volume 1. Museu Paraense
Emílio Goeldi, Belém.
CONTACTS
For
membership and further
information, contact:
Christine
Kabuye, National Museums of
Kenya, P.O.
Box 45166, Nairobi, Kenya;
Tel.
+254.2.743513, Fax
+254.2.741424, e-mail
biodiv@elci.gni.apc.org
For
information on The Global
Coalition, contact:
Darrell
A. Posey, Programme for
Traditional Rights, The
Oxford Centre for the
Environment, Ethics &
Society, Mansfield
College, University of Oxford,
Oxford
OX1 3TF, UK; Tel./Fax
+44.1865.327358,
e-mail
posey@vax.ox.ac.uk
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Society
for Conservation Biology
The Society’s journal
Conservation Biology, which contains a
variety of news, opinion pieces and
scientific articles, has quickly become
an international forum for debates on
biodiversity conservation. Multimedia
Center for details.
-GJM
The Society for Conservation Biology was
founded in 1985 to help develop the
scientific and technical means for the
protection, maintenance, and restoration
of life: its species, ecological and
evolutionary processes, and the total
environment. The Society has over 4200
members in more than 55 countries. Its
activities include:
- promoting
research and maintaining the
highest standards of research
quality and ethics;
- publishing
and disseminating scientific,
technical and management
information;
- encouraging
communication and collaboration
between conservation biology and
other disciplines that study
conservation and natural resource
issues, such as other natural and
social sciences, economics, law,
and philosophy;
- educating
the public, biologists and
managers in the principles of
conservation biology;
- providing
funding to promote the above
activities;
- recognizing
outstanding contributions to the
field made by individuals and
organizations.
‘... several Indian tribes have
begun a process of outright
liquidation of their land resource
capital in the form of western-style
land concessions granted to logging
companies and gold miners. For
instance, having found their way to
lucrative markets, the Kayapo of
eastern Amazonia have logged $33
million in profits from mahogany
extraction alone in 1988 ... Under
the current system their trees will
continue to fall, because the
Brazilian government will never be
able to meet the Kayapo’s demand
for $50,000 per village per month for
timber sales forgone. Other Brazilian
Indian groups helping to shatter the
myth of the noble savage include the
Guajajara of the northeast, the
Kaxarari of Acre, and the Nambikwara
of Mato Grosso, all of which are
involved in prime hardwood business.
These market-oriented practices are
clearly not what is generally
considered genuine nature
conservation, which raises serious
questions over the role of indigenous
reserves as conservation units.’
From:
Peres, C.A. 1994. Indigenous reserves
and nature conservation in Amazonian
forests. Conservation Biology
8(2):586-588.
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Updated
number and size of existing
Amazonian indigenous reserves
‘on paper’ compared to
those of all other categories of
conservation units, including
national parks, biological
reserves, ecological stations,
and other recognized forms of
extractive and production forest. |
CONTACTS
- Dennis
Murphy, President,
Society
for Conservation Biology,
c/o
Center for Conservation
Biology, Department
of Biological Sciences,
Stanford
University, Stanford,
CA 94305, USA; Tel.
+1.415.7251852, Fax
+1.415.7235920
- Membership
affairs are handled by:
Blackwell
Scientific Publications,
238
Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142,
USA; Tel.
+1.617.8767000
 Indian
reserves account for 54% of all
459 Amazonian reserves in South
American countries. They
represent 100.2 million ha in 371
reserves in Brazilian Amazonia
alone.
|
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Society
of Ethnobiology
The Society of Ethnobiology, started in
the 1980s by two young ethnobiologists,
Steve Weber and Steve Emslie, currently
has several hundred members. The annual
meetings have been held in the United
States, Mexico and Canada. Eugene Hunn,
the new editor of the Journal of
Ethnobiology, promises to include keynote
articles that capture the range and
impact of contemporary ethnobiological
research.
-GJM
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Drawing
of a horse that forms
part of the Society of
Ethnobiology logo.
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The
Society of Ethnobiology is a
scientific society composed
largely of academics. While drawn
from around the world, its
membership is mostly from the
USA, Canada and Mexico, including
a good number of student members.
Most members have backgrounds in
archaeology, anthropology, and to
a lesser degree botany and human
geography. The Society is
administered by an elected Board
of Trustees. It organizes an
annual conference where
scientific papers and posters are
presented, and produces the
peer-reviewed Journal of
Ethnobiology. The Society is not
an advocacy organization, but
exists primarily as a vehicle to
facilitate communication for
those people interested in
ethnobiology, the study of the
inter-relationships between
humans, plants and animals in the
past and in the
present.
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‘Monkey bread and monkey
tamarind are two of the common names
that appear in published accounts of
Africa’s well-known baobab tree
(Adansonia digitata L.). These monkey
names are generally assumed to be
derived from the simple fact that
monkeys eat the baobab’s fruit.
Although this literal interpretation
seems obvious, it is neither the only
one, nor is it necessarily the
correct one. In the Caribbean, the
use of monkey in the compound common
names for baobab and other plants
implies imitation. The name monkey
tamarind, for example, indicates that
the baobab is like the tamarind tree
(Tamarindus indica L.). It mimics the
tamarind just as a monkey does a
human. This is consistent with what
we find in other parts of the world
where the baobab is also identified
as a kind of tamarind, though without
the name monkey.’
From:
Rashford, J. 1994. Africa’s
baobab tree: why monkey names?
Journal of Ethnobiology
14(2):173-183.
CONTACTS
- Brien
Meilleur, Secretary/Treasurer,
Society of Ethnobiology,
Missouri
Botanical Garden,
Center
for Plant Conservation,
PO
Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166,
USA; Tel.
+1.314.5779450, Fax
+1.314.5779465
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Asociación
Mexicana de Etnobiología
Julieta Ramos-Elorduy, well-known for her
work on the edible and medicinal insects
of Mexico, has been instrumental in
getting the Mexican Society of
Ethnobiology up and running. At the 1st
Mexican Congress of Ethnobiology in 1994,
the over 250 participants heard results
of 41 ethnobiological studies which
focused on 14 ethnic groups living in 17
different states of Mexico.
-GJM
The Asociación Mexicana de Etnobiología
was established in 1993, with the
objectives of strengthening research and
teaching within the field of
ethnobiology. Through promoting
ethnobiology and reinforcing the value of
such knowledge, the Asociación seeks to
slow the erosion of ethnobiological
knowledge and to contribute to the
conservation of the biological and
cultural biodiversity of Mexico. The
Asociación seeks to improve the links
between all people working in this area:
private and governmental organizations,
the scientific community, local
communities and indigenous organizations.
This is achieved through organizing
congresses (held every two years) and
bimonthly meetings. Some of the subjects
which have been discussed include
resources for nutrition and health;
ethnohistory; and knowledge and
conservation of natural and cultural
resources. Production of a newsletter for
the Asociación is planned.
‘To date, our research group has
recorded 247 species of edible
insects in Mexico. For the most part,
these were found in regions known to
have severe or very severe
nutritional deficiencies, in the
southern and central sections of the
country. Both terrestrial and aquatic
insects are eaten, as adults or
immatures, according to the region,
and these have a wide variety of
common names in the local language
and in Spanish. Among these edible
insects are dragonflies,
grasshoppers, bugs, treehoppers,
beetles, butterflies, moths, ants,
bees and wasps. In many instances,
the word ‘insect’ is
unknown among the people, and their
description or name of an edible
insect stresses colors, behavior,
size, or habitat. Often the flavor is
in the description.
The large number of recorded species
indicates to us the importance of
edible insects to local communities
and the interest people take in this
natural renewable food resource. This
importance is all the more
accentuated when one realizes that
these insects constitute a supply of
animal protein and that they can be
... an almost complete meal. Although
many traditional foods are eaten, the
total caloric value of the Mexican
peasant’s diet is low and the
protein quantity may be insufficient
to supply daily requirements,
resulting in protein energy
malnutrition.’
From:
Ramos-Elorduy, J. 1990. Edible
insects: barbarism or solution to the
hunger problem? Pages 151-152 in D.A.
Posey and W.L. Overal, editors,
Ethnobiology: its Implications and
Applications. Proceedings of the
First International Congress of
Ethnobiology (Belém, 1988), volume
1. Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi,
Belém.
CONTACTS
- Julieta
Ramos-Elorduy, Asociación
Mexicana de Etnobiología,
Instituto
de Biología, Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México,
Ciudad Universitaria, Apartado
Postal 70-153, 04510
México, DF, México;
Tel.
+52.5.6225704, Fax +52.5.5500164
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There are more than 100
ethnobotanists from Mexico listed
in the directory of the Grupo de
Etnobotánicos
Latinoamericanos (GELA). |
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Society
for Economic Botany
SEB currently has some 1250 members,
including many who live outside the
United States. The Society holds some
annual meetings outside the United
States, including ones in Mexico City
(1994) and England (1996). A policy of
encouraging members to sponsor
memberships in the Society and
subscriptions to Economic Botany for
colleagues from developing countries is
allowing SEB to reach even farther
overseas.
-TF
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The
Society for Economic Botany is an
international scientific
organization founded in 1959 in
the USA. The Society’s aim
is to encourage scientific
research on the past, present and
future uses of plants and to
disseminate the results through
meetings and publications. Its
journal, Economic Botany, is
published quarterly, and includes
research papers, reviews and
historical studies. Symposia are
sponsored in conjunction with the
annual meetings. Recent symposia
have been held on: collection and
management of wild useful plants
in Mexico; ethnobotany in the
neotropics; and conservation of
crop genetic resources. There is
a UK Chapter of the SEB, based in
London. All members receive the
journal and a newsletter, Plants
and People, edited by Trish
Flaster of Botanical
Liaisons. |
‘The exploitation of
Astrocaryum standleyanum in the
Province of Manabí provides an
example of an extractive resource
which is somewhat protected due to
its commercial value ... However,
destructive exploitation, involving
felling of palms or harvesting too
many leaves, is also seen,
underlining that the commercial value
of the fibers may also lead to the
depletion of palm populations, as has
happened in the Province of
Esmeraldas.
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Astrocaryum
standleyanum seems to have a
strong regenerative power if
seedlings are protected from
cattle and/or direct
sunlight, such as in some
agricultural systems and in
secondary shrubs and forest. |
| Along
with the protection and
occasional planting by humans
this means that the palm will
probably survive
deforestation better than
many other forest species
from Coastal Ecuador. Given
its wide distribution and the
limited exploitation in other
countries, this palm species
is not threatened.’ |
From:
Borgtoft Pedersen, H. 1994. Mocora
palm-fibers: use and management of
Astrocaryum standleyanum (Arecaceae)
in Ecuador. Economic Botany
48(3):310-325.
| There
are an estimated 200 genera and
2700 species of palms in the
world. |
CONTACTS
- Subscriptions:
Society
for Economic Botany,
PO
Box 368, Lawrence, KS
66044, USA
- Meetings:
Lucille
N.Kaplan, Department
of Anthropology,
University
of Massachusetts at Boston,
Boston,
MA 02125-3393, USA;
Tel.
+1.617.2876846 or 2876850, Fax
+1.617.2876650
- Newsletter:
Trish
Flaster, Botanical
Liaisons, 1180
Crestmoor Drive,
Boulder,
CO 80303, USA; Fax
+1.303.4942555, e-mail
tflaster@rmii.com
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Society of
Ethnobotanists
The Society of Ethnobotanists was one
of the co-sponsors of the 5th
International Congress of Ethnobiology
held in Lucknow, India, in November 1994.
Although just 15 years old, it has become
one of the largest national
ethnobotanical societies in the
world.
-GJM
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Vendors
of sal (Shorea robusta,
Dipterocarpaceae) resin
in a rural market in West
Bengal, India.
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The
Society of Ethnobotanists was
founded in India in 1980. The
objectives of the Society are to
develop our knowledge of
ethnobotany, through encouraging
collaboration and information
exchange between researchers. It
also seeks to promote interest in
ethnobotany and to increase
awareness of the natural
environment and the loss of
traditional knowledge. The
Society’s activities include
organizing seminars, training
courses and workshops. It has
produced a World Directory of
Ethnobotanists (1986), and
publishes a newsletter and also
the journal Ethnobotany. The
Society has an international
membership, although
predominantly drawn from India at
the moment. |
‘In conventional medical
practices of Ayurveda, the plants are
identified through close observations
and experiences of ... shepherds ...
and others who live in forests and
are well versed with the names and
forms of plants. Therefore, it is
emphasized that the information on
plants be based on inferences drawn
by the ... tribal people, shepherds
and saints who were the real forest
dwellers ... In Ayurvedic parlance
the knowledge of the saints, seers
and scholars of the ancient era
percolated from one generation to the
other by oral communication in
Guru-Shishya Parampara (i.e. the
knowledge being transmitted from
teacher to taught) or through
assemblies of intellectuals on
different parvas, fairs and
pilgrimages. This exchange of ideas
in later years persuaded plantation
activities of the essential medicinal
plants near the ashrams ... for
getting authentic, potent and fresh
herbal material.’
. From:
Pandey, V.N. 1989. Oriental
discipline of Ayurveda - its
medico-ethnobotanical approaches and
their application in the evolution of
drugs. Pages 105-123 in S.K. Jain,
editor, Methods and Approaches in
Ethnobotany. Society of
Ethnobotanists, Lucknow.
CONTACTS
- SK
Jain, Society of
Ethnobotanists, Botany
Division, Central
Drug Research Institute,
Lucknow-226001
or Herbarium Division,
National
Botanical Research
Institute, Lucknow-226001,
India; Tel.
+91.522.271031, Fax
+91.522.282849, Telex
0535-315
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