The ISE has received two proposals to host the 2016 ISE Congress (listed below). Please take a moment to review these proposals, as you will be asked to vote for the venue of the 2016 ISE Congress. The criteria set forth by the ISE include: relevance of the proposed theme, organizational capacity, inclusion of indigenous, traditional and local communities in the planning, as well as an effort to maintain geographic rotation of congresses across different regions. The full criteria are available for your reference in the Call for Proposals. There will be a further announcement about how the voting will take place, and the ISE Board will be making its recommendation soon.
- Congress theme: “Ethnobiological knowledge for improved human wellbeing and development.”
- Host Organization: Makerere University, in collaboration with Uganda National Council for Science and Technology and Buganda Kingdom
- Primary Contact: Dr. Esezah Kakudidi
2) Assam, India
- Congress theme: “Conservation and Sustainable utilization of Ethnic resources for a better future.”
- Host Organization: Assam University
- Primary Contact: Dr. M. Dutta Choudhury
The ISE Board has reviewed the two proposals before us for hosting the 2016 Congress. Both proposals have good support from local communities, and are in diverse and ethnobiologically interesting areas of the world, and both proposals have worthwhile themes. We feel that the proposal from Kampala shows strong evidence of both local commitment and local capacity. In accord with the ISE guidelines, geographic diversity of congress locations is one of our important criteria. The 2014 Congress will be held in Bhutan, which is culturally and geographically similar to Assam, while we have not had a congress in Africa since 2002. The Board therefore recommends supporting the Uganda proposal.
Voting Procedures:
The vote for the next congress venue will take place online to enable the widest access to participation from our membership. All current members are eligible to vote for the next congress venue. Please review the materials for the two proposals in preparation for the online vote which will begin in early May. Links to both proposals will be available within the e-ballot as well for anyone who needs quick reference while voting. The full process for this new online system is available on the ISE website.