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Code of Ethics

The Code of Ethics of the International Society of Ethnobiology has its origins in the Declaration of Belém, agreed upon in 1988 at the founding of the International Society of Ethnobiology (in Belém, Brazil). The Code of Ethics was initiated in 1996 and completed in 2006. The final version, adopted by the ISE membership at the 11th International Congress of Ethnobiology in November 2006, supercedes all previous draft versions. An Executive Summary and Glossary of Terms were added at the 11th International Congress of Ethnobiology in June 2008.

The Code of Ethics is available for download below. Please note that the

Read the English version of the Code of Ethics on-line.

To download the Code of Ethics as a pdf in the available languages, please see below.

The ISE thanks all those who generously volunteered their time to create translations (acknowledged below):

Code of Ethics Survey

As part of the ISE's commitment to reviewing and evolving the Code of Ethics to meet changing needs and situations, and creating outreach and extension materials (e.g., an Ethics Toolkit) to support its adoption and implementation, we have created a survey for the ISE membership.

This survey is divided into two parts. The first part will take approximately 10-20 minutes to answer and responses will be considered in the Code of Ethics review process. The second part will take approximately 10 minutes and responses will be used in developing the Ethics Toolkit and other implementation materials. Please click here to participate in important survey (or copy the following link into your browser window: http://www.esurveyspro.com/Survey.aspx?id=314bcfb1-f00b-4ab7-8f72-a35d8f651294).

Please note that the information collected will only be used by the ISE for review of the ISE Code of Ethics and development of the ISE Ethics Toolkit. The survey is intended to generate anonymous information, which will be aggregated prior to assessment and public reporting. Any identifying information that may be revealed by respondents (intentionally or not) will be treated confidentially.

Thank you for your interest and assistance!

Code of Ethics Toolkit

Participants in pre-Congress Ethics Workshop, Nov 2-4, 2006, Chiang Rai, Thailand (Image © 2006)

The ISE thanks the hundreds of individuals and many organisations that contributed to the creation of the Code of Ethics over its decade-long development process.

Special thanks to participants of the Pre-Congress Ethics Workshop: