I am Anna Varga and I am from Hungary. I am Assistant Research Fellow at the Centre for Ecological Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences since September 2013. 

My family is from the countryside and my grandparents were farmers. We still manage a small family vineyard. Those experinences have shown me the way to the ethnobiology. I am interested in biocultural diversity of  agroforestry-systems, especially on silvopastoral systems in the Carpathian-basin (Hungary, Romania). I am writing my PhD about traditional ecological knowledge and landscape history of wood pastures in Hungary. For my research – which explores landscape history, botany and traditional ecological knowledge– I am interviewing shepherds,farmers, NGO representatives and rangers of national parks. One of my current project is how rangers can integrate traditonal ecological knowledge in their work. My other interest now is tending the wild magagment in communinty managaments in East-Central Europe. A very important part of my life is teaching and community-building for young and adult people. I am a member of the Eastern European Ethnobiologist Network. I am the leader of  Hungarian Association for Land and People NGO (Táj és Ember NKTKE).For example we organize Ethnobiology Science Café every months in 2 universities. You can read more about this NGO: http://www.terralinguaubuntu.org/Langscape/Volume_2/langscape-2-13

Faces of Ethnobiology: John Fanshawe

My name is John Fanshawe, and I live in Cornwall  in a ramshackle old house in Boscastle that overlooks the Atlantic.  

For two days a week, I work remotely for BirdLife on issues surrounding birds, culture and society, and divide the rest of my time between the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, and trying to do my own stuff, walking the cliffs and fields with binoculars and a camera, writing, drawing, reading, and so on.  Where I live now is where I grew up, so I have come full circle and landed back in a landscape I have known all my life. My wife, Clare, is a conservation adviser for Natural England, and we have two children, Holly, who is at college studying for the IB and hoping to be a marine biologist, and Jack, who is in Manchester, reading medicine. 

 

John and his daugther in Kenya

I studied law, but after a three month stint in the Peruvian Andes as a student, I changed track, and found my way into conservation; initially as an intern for UNEP, then as research assistant for the long-running Serengeti Lion Project.  After a couple of years in Tanzania, I returned to work for the Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge, and since then for BirdLife.  I joined as an Africa Programme officer, and then worked with the GEF agencies, UNEP, UNDP, and the World Bank, and latterly as head of the policy and advocacy team.  I have an MA in art and environment from Falmouth, and undertook a DPhil on the impact of logging on Kenyan forest birds.

If I was to try and describe my current work in three words, I would chose local to global, since my work has revolved around trying to link grassroots approaches to conservation and development with the global processes that influence them.  

All of this returns to experience in East Africa, particularly in and around Kenya’s Arabuko-Sokoke Forest.  I first visited as a birder, then as a researcher, and finally was seconded to the Kenya Wildlife Service to support an integrated conservation and development project.  During this time, I also worked on a Field Guide to the birds of East Africa, and this evolution from an avicentric perspective to one rooted in local development lies at the heart of my growing interest in ethno-biology.

With my wife, Clare, I worked on aspects of subsistence mammal hunting in Sokoke, and collaborated closely with my friends, David Ngala and Martin Walsh, towards an as-yet unpublished Mijikenda ethno-ornithology.  Long conversations with David, and other Giriama friends, had a profound impact on my career as a conservationist, and have led to developing the Ethno-ornithology World Archive (EWA).  EWA brings me to Bhutan, and the ISE meeting, and with colleagues in Oxford, at SOAS, and the publisher, Lynx Edicions in Spain, we are working to create a framework to allow us to support all aspects of ethno-ornithology.  We are hoping to find innovative ways of integrating the work of ethno-biologists into the conservation programmes of 120 BirdLife Partner NGOs, particularly within networks of Local Conservation Groups. 

Faces of Ethnobiology: Jigme Dorji

I am Jigme Dorji from Bhutan. I work for Royal Manas National Park, Department of Forests and Park Services. 

I have been trained as a forester. I studied Graduate Diploma in Environment Management and Development from Australian National University, Canberra. Recently, I have completed my Bachelors Degree in Forestry from the College of Natural Resources, Royal University of Bhutan.

As a professional forester, the three key words that describe my work are Environment, People and human-wildlife conflict. The environment conservation in Bhutan is top priority and the mandate to protect and safeguard environment lies with the Department of Forests and Park Services. The constitution of Bhutan mandates maintaining 60% total geographical land under forest covers for all times to come. The people are integral part of the nature and all the parks in Bhutan have people living inside the boundary. The respect for traditional rights to use natural resources and improve rural income is very important for the success of environment conservation. Where the people and nature coexist, the human-wildlife conflict is inevitable consequences. In the park that I work, crop depredation by wild ungulates is very common though livestock depredation is occasionally reported. On the other hand, land encroachment, poaching and forest fire are major challenges that almost all the protected areas in Bhutan face.

I am born to a farming family and grew up in rural

environment. I have spent most of my childhood life in the village and got chance to experience hardship living in remote place where modern facilities were out of reach. Farming was only source of livelihoods. The education for children was next priority than having a farm labour. Fortunately or unfortunately I could go to school at the age of 12. But more importantly, spending my youth in village taught me more than an education in schools. The traditional practices, local belief, customary laws, social coherence, inherent love for nature are some the factors that influenced to me choose my career as Forester.

Currently I am working on Community based Ecotourism in

Royal Manas National Park. This initiative is aimed at improving livelihoods of the local community by way of creating opportunities to sale their products and services directly to tourist. This in turn is expected to reduce poverty and thereby reducing their dependency on park’s natural resources. My immediate future plan is to do a Masters Degree.

Faces of Ethnobiology: Laurent Jean-Pierre

Laurent is founder of the Laurent World Broom Collection at the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology and discovered a new plant species, called Bernardia laurentii, in 1986. I am also a co-founder of the St. Lucia Herbarium, and of the Forestry Medicinal Plant Gardens. These projects played a leading role and/or spearheaded the conservation of biodiversity and genetic resources on the Island.

Although I was born on St Lucia, the gem in the crown of the Antilles, I became an Afro-Caribbean in the Diaspora upon migrated to North America in 1994. I have several years experience working as an environmental anthropologist (Ethnobotanist). During that period, I worked at the St. Lucia National Trust as the curator and research office of the St. Lucia National Herbarium.

I hold an International Diploma in Herbarium Development Techniques (including plant taxonomy) from Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew. From Hartwick College, NY, USA, I obtained an undergraduate BA degree in Anthropology with minors in Biology and Religion. My Ethnobotany MSc. (University of Kent at Canterbury, UK) dissertation focused on the sustainable use of Coccothrinax barbadensis a local palm used for broom-making in the Caribbean. I am now known as the “broom-man.”

At present, I work with and represent Local Communities at the CBD level as it relates to biodiversity in the area of Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS). In addition, I work as a sustainable development consultant, gardener and researcher on Kwéyòl Gardens in the Caribbean, the Coordinator of TRAMIL (Traditional Medicine of the Islands), and the chairperson of the FRC’s (Folk Research Centre) Kwéyòl Language Committee. My ethnobotanical journey encompasses investigation into traditional taxonomic systems, use of plant in the daily lives of local and regional Caribbean communities, including plants used in food, medicine, shelter, rope, arts and crafts, legends, poetry, stories, proverbs, hygiene, dentifrice, dermatology, dyes, music, games, history, hallucinogenics, religion, archeology, shampoos, and so on. Moreover, I am developing and establishing a calabash (Crescentia Cujete) garden and a calabash art collection.

My works with Local Communities, on the island of St. Lucia, and the wider Caribbean has been engaged in facilitating the sustainable development of the Local Communities. In essence, my work bridges the gap or is a conduit between the traditional and conventional knowledge. My work involves food security, sustainability; benefit sharing, plant identification/taxonomy, Traditional Knowledge documentation, translating the importance of conservation of biodiversity in the local Kwéyòl language, including invasive species, medicinal plant research, plants and people relationship, biocultural heritage, and so on. In addition, I have represented the Local Communities and the FRC (Folk Research Centre), TRAMIL (Traditional Medicines of the Islands) and CAPSICUM, St. Lucia, (Caribbean Association for the Plant Science, Industry, Commerce and Use in Medicine). These NGO's are working with the local communities. I am also a farmer and member of the Local Community of Bexon itself.

Sustainability and benefit sharing of the biosphere and ethnosphere is vital for the survival of local communities. Since the demise of the banana industry, local farmers have been asked to diversify the economy by exploiting other local natural resources (biodiversity). Hence, there is more pressure on the natural resources and the need to harness the knowledge associated with them. At present, there is a greater need to revert to traditional knowledge and methods for generating income on the domestic front. The question of benefit sharing for the local trustees of the traditional knowledge (TK) is important to national development. Thus, the role of the NGO’s and my work with the local communities is to facilitate the dialogue between the two bodies of TK and Conventional Knowledge using the Kwéyòl Language in order to foster mutual trust and respect between both groups. In the wider community in general, but in the local communities in particular, livelihoods depend on a healthy environment, sustainable development and equitable access and benefit sharing.

The information gleaned from the upcoming meeting will inform and equip me/us with the appropriate tools to assist the local communities through capacity building and foster free flow of information in their own local language.

Faces of Ethnobiology: Emilie Cremin

My name is Emilie CREMIN, I’m a PhD candidate in geography in Paris 8 University Saint-Denis, research associate in the Center for Himalayan Studies (CEH - CNRS) and I’m presently teaching human and environmental geography at Strasbourg University.

I grew up in the suburbs of Paris, in a green neighborhood next to the Montmorency forest, on the fringe of the large urbanized area surrounding our capital. My parents came from Poland and moved to France in the70’s. Since my childhood, I have felt very concerned by environmental issues such as air, water and soil pollution, as well as the reduction of biodiversity due to industrial agriculture practices. So I decided to study geography at Paris University in order to improve my knowledge on those topics and to find a way to get involved in land management. I was particularly interested to know more about rural societies in India. So I also studied Hindi and Bengali at the Institute of oriental language studies.

During my masters, I firstly worked on the impact and perceptions of dam constructions on the Narmada River in Madhya Pradesh, central India in 2005. Then I worked on local development projects in Bolivia in 2006.

After a Master’s degree in ethnobiology and eco-anthropology at the Natural History Museum of Paris in 2007, I joined the Himalayan Research Centre of the CNRS as a PhD student. Since that time, I’m participating to a program focused on North-east India. In that project, my PhD focuses on local adaptation strategies handled by rural communities that are facing natural hazards such as floods and erosion in the Brahmaputra flood plain. I came back to India again in 2007 to study the interactions between the river Brahmaputra and the people which live on its bank. I was particularly interested to understand how people managed to adjust with flooding and erosion which are frequently creating breaches in the embankments and damaging land and villages. I focused on paddy cultivation and on fishing practices. Ethnobiology is one of my interests, as I have conducted a survey about rice varieties used by tribes of the flood plain to cope with natural hazards.

During the 14th Congress of Ethnobiology, my colleague and I will present a paper on “Peasant’s ecological knowledge to adjust with floods and erosion in the Brahmaputra and Koshi river basin”.

At the last congress in 2012, I presented a paper on “Hydro-climatic variability, agro-ecosystem diversity and rice varieties used by the Missing tribes in the Brahmaputra flood plain (Assam-North-East India)” in the 16th Session: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Global Environmental Change: North and South perspectives.

I’m particularly interested in participating in the pre-congress workshop, as I hope to exchange research methodologies and share fieldwork experiences with many other research fellows, from different countries, backgrounds, ages and genders. I hope to learn about indigenous research approaches, ecological governance, social, spatial and economic justice, ethnobiology issues in Bhutan and maybe creates new and innovative research projects.

Faces of Ethnobiology: Constanza Monterrubio

I’m Constanza Monterrubio from Mexico, currently working in Chiapas, Mexico. In 2008, during an attempt to establish a participatory monitoring strategy in an indigenous community conserved area in Oaxaca, the local men I was working with and myself got lost in the forest, walking up and down the hills during fourteen hours. 

Landscape in Santa María Guiengati, Oaxaca

After establishing their own community-conserved area, local people were persuaded to completely ban hunting and gathering in the mountains covering 13,000 has surrounding them. As a result, local men were already forgetting the paths, and presumably, the same was happening with their knowledge about the abundant biodiversity that surrounded them. This experience changed my perception of biodiversity conservation, allowing me to value the importance of the multiple relationships between humans and the environment, as well as to re-consider the negative effects that simplistic approaches to conservation can have over local populations and biodiversity itself. 

Especies utilizadas para cacería de auto-consumo en Escuintla, Chiapas.

Since then, I have focused on the importance of local knowledge and structures for decision-making to establish long-lasting and sustainable natural resources management. Working together with people, defining what they want to do and how they want to do it, in a way that respects their perspectives and biodiversity. One of the things I like the most about my job is that I am able to work in amazing landscapes with cultural diversity, listening to what local people have to say and facilitating decisions that have a direct effect on the environment and the local wellbeing. Although this is not always easy and need to develop so many skills still!

Making “totopos” in La Cristalina, Oaxaca.

Nowadays, I am trying to incorporate wider perspectives on territory and sustainability to support the development of capacities for communities and landowners so that they can make informed management decisions about their lands. In the near future, I would like to be much more involved into bio-cultural conservation, enhancing the dynamic continuity of local crops and the cultural practices related to them in order to contribute to the achievement of food sovereignty and security.

Members of the monitoring group in San Antonio, San Miguel Chiamalapa, Oaxaca.

Faces of Ethnobiology:Thiago C Gomes

Photo taken by Nancy Turner

“Oi”. My name is Thiago (pronounced tchee-a-go). I was born and raised in Curitiba, southern Brazil, "the land of many pine trees and pine nuts" (Araucaria angustifolia (Bertol.) Kuntze). I have lived and worked in northern Mozambique and western Canada. Now, I live in Florianópolis, on the beautiful Island of Santa Catarina.

Laklãnõ Xokleng Indigenous Territory

I have recently joined the Graduate Program in Ecology at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina as a PhD student. I am currently investigating the relationships between patterns of biodiversity, ecosystem structure, function and services on the cultural landscapes of the Xokleng Indigenous People in the Upper Itajaí River Valley in Santa Catarina. 

3 words that would best describe my work are: collaboration, understanding and ecology. 

The process of becoming a student of social-ecological systems, biocultural diversity and how people understand and relate to their environments probably started at a young age. Curitiba is known worldwide for its eco-friendly urban projects and substantial relicts of Mata Atlântica Rainforest. Most of my education and life experiences were embedded in this environment, coupled by numerous incursions into the rural countryside, where my parents grew up as farmers’ children.

Replantng saplings in Chatham Islands

As an emerging ethnobiologist, I have already had some remarkable moments in my early career. I am thankful for having the opportunity of moving overseas to Mozambique and experience life with the Makhua, Makonde and Moni Peoples, and more recently working with the Lekwungen People and other Coast Salish First Nations in West Coast Canada during my masters’ program. These experiences really challenged me to pursue excellence in my research and a commitment to local voices.


A memorable moment I can mention is the first visit to Tl’chés, a small archipelago on Canada’s west coast, when Lekwungen elder Sellemah and young leaders welcomed myself into their traditional territory and ancestral lands. It was a very moving and significant event for the rest of the work. During the same fieldwork season we had traditional pitcooking feasts, received a Canadian television crew, and enjoyed the company of eagles and each other while worked.

TG_Welcoming Prayer on Tl'chés

As for the future, having received the 2014-2015 Darrell Posey PhD Fellowship for Ethnoecology and Traditional Resource Rights for my work with the Xokleng Indigenous People, I am keen to continue my PhD research and advance ethnoecological studies here in southern Brazil.

Faces of Ethnobiology: Robin Wild

My name is Robin Wild. I’m originally from Wiltshire in the UK, but my home is Edinburgh, Scotland. It’s here that I’m currently finishing my BSc in Ecological Sciences (Conservation Management). Three key words I would use to describe my work are ‘San’, ‘conservation’ and ‘knowledge’.

I grew up in Africa as the son of two ecologists and as a result was constantly surrounded by nature and environmentally oriented work. This developed my passion for the environment and the want to protect it. Before I started my BSc I went on trip to Namibia to find out whether conservation was what I wanted to do. I fell in love with the country and have been back twice during my degree. While out there I became more and more aware of the need for community involvement and the rural development side of conservation, and my passion grew in this area. I was also exposed to animal tracking while there and my curiosity for one of the most ancient forms of understanding the environment in a scientific way flourished. As my curiosity grew I became aware of the wealth of knowledge indigenous communities have on the environment and the potential for this to contribute to conservation management and in turn provide a tangible benefit to rural communities.

I then had the chance to stay in Bwabwata National Park in Namibia to conduct the research for undergraduate dissertation. Bwabwata National Park is home to ~6000 Khwe San individuals, one of the main San groups in Northern Namibia. The San are renowned for their expertise in tracking and I wanted to explore aspects of their knowledge that may benefit conservation management within the park. It was here that I had one of my most memorable experiences.

I joined a tracker training exercise held for community members in the park and was tested by the trainer. I managed to succeed in identifying quite a number of tracks. I felt a sense of achievement very different to learning in a ‘lecture based’ setting.

My future plans are to complete an MSc and PhD on transboundary protected areas and community based conservation, incorporating indigenous knowledge and hopefully some aspects of outreach and education. I don’t know exactly where I want to go yet but either way hope to become a teacher of what I learn and hopefully make an impact.

Faces of Ethnobiology:Murodbek Laldjebaev

My name is Murodbek Laldjebaev. I grew up in a small village of Kazideh in Ishkashim district of the Pamir Mountains, Tajikistan. Growing up in Tajikistan during the civil war and having lived through the difficulties of completing my secondary and university education in the post-war period, I learned the importance of rising above the challenges of life. As an undergraduate, majoring in English Language at Khorog State University, I realized that in order to achieve significant, long-term improvements in people’s quality of life, a commensurate investment in human development is required. Upon graduation, I worked for the Institute for Professional Development to enhance the quality of in-service teacher training programs in Badakhshan province of Tajikistan. During this period I developed a keen interest in education and joined the University of Central Asia’s (UCA) Faculty Development Program. Under this program I completed my Master in Public Policy degree from Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.  Now, I am pursuing doctoral studies at the Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, upon completion of which I will return to UCA as faculty member. 

 The field of ethnobiology is quite new to me, and I am interested in exploring the linkages with my work on rural energy systems. I would like to learn about methodologies that other researchers are using to investigate food, health, ecology and culture. How are they approaching the research design and data collection in ways that are sensitive to research participants? Can the research identify and address community needs adequately? I hope to establish connections with researchers and practitioners interested in mountain societies. These networks will be valuable for my current research work and when I return to the UCA upon completion of my studies. With three campuses located in mountainous regions of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, UCA’s mission is to promote the social and economic development of Central Asia, particularly addressing the needs of its mountain communities. Given this mission and the context of communities, I am interested in incorporating the insights from ethnobiology, particularly indigenous knowledge, in my research and teaching.

 

In three words, my research work focuses on “energy”, “livelihoods” and “rural communities”. Broadly, my interests span the areas of energy security, energy sovereignty, water resources management, food sovereignty, and energy-water-food nexus, particularly in Central Asia. For my doctoral research, I am developing a practical conceptualization of “energy security” and “energy sovereignty” through investigation of the energy needs and resources of rural communities in Tajikistan. The conceptualization of energy security and energy sovereignty is informed by drawing on the evolving discourse around “food security” and “food sovereignty”. As the research investigates household energy systems, a key element is to understand how households make energy decisions.  I am also interested in exploring the spatial analysis of energy systems, particularly how location and distribution of energy sources factors into energy use patterns of households.