ISE Darrell Posey Fellowship Program
The ISE Darrell Posey Fellowship Program promotes understanding of peoples’ complex and dynamic relationships with their environment, and supports indigenous peoples and local communities working to sustainably manage, and secure rights to, their environment and resources. The ISE Darrell Posey Fellowship for Ethnoecology and Traditional Resource Rights was launched in 2004 with a grant from The Christensen Fund, and is administered by the International Society of Ethnobiology, of which Darrell Posey was a founder. Read more about Darrell Posey.
Ethnoecology is the study of complex relationships, both past and present, between people and their environment. It transcends the disciplinary boundaries of anthropology, botany, zoology, ecology, economics, archaeology, pharmacology, linguistics and related fields. The emphasis of ethnoecology is on local peoples’ perceptions, knowledge and understandings of their own reality and problems. Few fields are better positioned to provide the background, knowledge, and insights necessary to promote dialogue and find workable solutions to today’s pressing resource management and social justice concerns.
Traditional resource rights integrate a bundle of basic rights that include human and cultural rights, the right to self-determination, and land and territorial rights. Traditional resource rights recognize the right of indigenous peoples and local communities to control the use of plant, animal and other resources, and associated traditional knowledge and technologies. They take into account the spiritual, aesthetic, cultural and economic values of such resources, knowledge and technologies.
The core objectives of the Fellowship Program are:
- to build ethnoecology as a discipline, while promoting ethical research practices and processes;
- to assist indigenous peoples working to achieve land, cultural, human, traditional resource, and other rights;
- to address broader spiritual and cultural aspects of well-being, health, and the environment.
Learn more about the main Program components:
A Darrell Posey Fellowship will be awarded every year and each will run for two years. The fellowship will alternate each year between a Field Fellowship and an Oxford University Fellowship. The Fellowship program also includes the award of small grants to indigenous peoples and local community groups.
You can promote the ISE Darrell Posey Fellowship program by:
- Distributing the program’s trifold brochure
- Making a secure online donation.
The logo for the Darrell Posey Fellowship is based on drawings by Irã Kayapó, made as part of ethnoecological research undertaken with Darrell Posey. Permission to use the images as part of the logo was sought and granted by INBRAPI (Instituto Indigena Brasileiro para a Propriedade Intelectual).
For more information on the Darrell Posey Fellowship for Ethnoecology and Traditional Resource Rights, email the Fellowship Administrator.
