Reflection about the ISE Congress 2016
Written by Yuba Raj Subedi
ISE provides me opportunity to participate in the ISE congress at Kampala, where I had opportunity to share cultural practices of Chepang Indigenous communities on traditional medicine and how it became vulnerable due to migration and other factors. I would like to thanks ISE for giving me this opportunity to meet the people and learn different aspects of people’s cultural practices and its relation with subsistence livelihood and nature.
The congress itself was knowledge hub and learning tools to motivate many emerging ethnobiologist including me for further research and advocacy on community rights for traditional practices to explore the different positive aspects of faith, norms and survival strategies in the changing climatic condition and changing human behavior. Most importantly, the congress benefitted me to enhance my knowledge on usages of plants and its parts as well and human wildlife dimension for ecological balance and ecosystem management. Besides, the congress was also helpful for many researchers and other people to explore the African culture, its relation with nature and history of primitive practices which exist till now and which is already extinct.
The congress motivate me to establish some rewards for emerging ethnobiologist to encourage them for further action on ethnobiological study as well as to contribute human nature relationship. Although it is a small contribution but, I believe the approach of contribution will explore further ways to support many ethnobiologist those who are dedicating for their research.
Finally, this congress open my ideas to do research on human wildlife relation, the economic aspects of environmental services and ethnozoology, where I would like to spent my time for further work on it and I trust, I gained some knowledge on methodology and motivation to carry out the action research on it for long time. Again I would like to thanks ISE board to provide me such a wonderful opportunity to enhance my career and enhance my motive to work on ethnobiological field.