We have received the following nominations for the 2014-2016 and 2014-2016 ISE Board term:

(i) Vice President (President-Elect; a 2-year term followed by a 2-year term as President):  Verna Miller was nominated by current ISE President Jack Miller. Verna submitted the following when she accepted the nomination:

I am Pepeyla (Verna Miller) from the Nlakapamux homelands located in what is known as Canada and the United States. Now a retiree, I look forward to working with the ISE again. I have been a Board member in the past and an ISE member since 2006, when I was also invited to be part of the Ethics Committee in Thailand. I have chaired many Boards in my role as Elder and during my working career. I continue to sit on a variety of Boards and committees in a leadership role. In the summer of 2013 I completed a Master of Education (and I ride a Harley Trike). Since 2006 I have attended every Congress and enjoyed the people I’ve met from other Indigenous Communities and around the world. I found that we have a lot of common issues on any number of topics that are of concern to our communities, environment, life-way, traditions, language and culture. My intention for becoming a Board member again is to do whatever I can to keep our ISE going and moving ahead. Now that we are nearing the close of the current grant from The Christensen Fund, it is apparent that we have to be creative in finding more funding or opportunities to boost our funding. I am retired and now have the time to be part of searching for funding and discussing these issues. My vision is for the ISE to continue to work and understand better how respectful relationships can be of benefit to not only the researcher but for the Indigenous and traditional people from whom they gather information. Information is power, but not to the detriment of the people of place.

Verna meets the requirements for this position and per the ISE Constitution she will assume the position of Vice President by acclamation as we received no other candidates.

(ii) Secretary (a 4-year term): We received no nominations for this position.  Per the ISE Constitution, the Call for Nominations is now closed and will be re-opened for this position at the first general Assembly at the Congress in Bhutan.

(iii) 6 Regional Representatives, one from each ISE region: Per the ISE Constitution, Regional Representative positions with only one nominee will be re-opened for additional nominees at the first general Assembly at the Congress in Bhutan; Regional Representative positions with two candidates are closed and elections will tkae place by electronic ballot.

  • Africa: We received one self nomination for this position from Bobo Kadiri Serge 

I, Dr. BOBO Kadiri Serge, Director of the School for the Training of Wildlife Specialists Garoua, and Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the Department of Forestry, the Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences, University of Dschang (Cameroon), hereby address my aspirations to be nominated to the ISE board as the African representative for the 2014 to 2016 term of office. Since 2007, I am a PhD holder in Conservation Biology from the Georg-August University of Göttingen, Germany. I am a Forest and Wildlife Engineer by profession.

As the African representative for ISE, in order to contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the ISE, my ambitions are to:

  1. create an effective communication platform and promote an interactive forum for cultural exchanges between African members of the ISE whereby students, indigenous communities, early career scientists, professionals and researchers can exchange opportunities within the field of Ethnobiology (bio-cultural diversity) and other related fields;
  2. lobbying industrial companies and international/regional conservation and financial institutions in order to initiate financial mechanisms to support researches in ethnobiology from students and early career scientists in Africa and their participation in the 2016 ISE congress and other related workshops;
  3. help African ISE members to connect and create collaborations with other stakeholders (NGO’s, local governments, private firms,…) in order to support the activities of the ISE-Africa in particular and ISE in general;
  4. encourage scientific publications in ethnobiology by African partners;
  5. promote the importance of ethnobiology to natural resource management especially within community-based management projects implemented by conservation NGOs;
  6.  promote the relevance of ethnobiology as a course in African institutions;
  7. try and organize an Africa ICE congress before 2016.

However, the support of each and every member will be important for the achievement of the objectives of the ISE in Africa. Based on the above, I hereby declare myself a candidate to the duty of the African representative of the ISE for 2014 to 2016. Read Bobo’s full nomination.

  • Central and South America and the Caribbean: We received two self-nominations for this position:

Armando Medinaceli

Following the activities I undertook from 2012-2014 as the ISE Central and South America and the Caribbean Regional Representative, I would like to continue with several previously planned activities and pursue new ones as well, as detailed below. I am already in communication with national groups in Latin America with which I am planning potential activities in the near future. These activities are scheduled with societies of ethnobiology in Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, and Mexico and also with very enthusiastic groups of researchers from Guatemala and Venezuela. We are planning on organizing different events (meetings, seminars, short courses) where I would introduce the International Society of Ethnobiology, placing particular emphasis on the ISE Code of Ethics. Meetings will be held in the host countries when possible, and virtually when not. As a member of the board of the Latin American Society of Ethnobiology (SOLAE), and a representative of ISE for Central and South America and the Caribbean, I was invited to collaborate with a colleague from Mexico coordinating an ethics committee for the creation of the Code of Ethics of SOLAE, which aims to respond in more depth to the reality of the Latin American region. With this aim, we used the ISE Code of Ethics as a baseline and we currently are looking for funding opportunities to create spaces for discussion at all levels, from local communities to academic researchers, and others working in this field. I also would like to continue promoting ISE with my own work and, as I have being doing, by collaborating with groups of Latin American researchers who offer courses in ethnobiology or related topics. I have sent presentations on ISE and when possible participated in their courses by making presentations of the ISE Code of Ethics and promoting ISE in general.

Diana Lope-Alzina

I wish to express my interest to become a Regional Representative for the Central, South America, and the Caribbean region. Such a position will let me to continue with endeavors I have been carried towards a more inclusive Ethnobiology in the region I live and work with. For example, apart from my researcher career which I started as a country member in a local project by IPGRI (Bioversity International), I have built up a growing network of people interest in the homegardens agroecosystem (Red Huertos Familiares), and currently I serve as Executive Editor for Etnoecológica journal. Born in the Yucatan, cradle of the Maya civilization in México, and with higher education received in the North (US, Netherlands, UK), I hold both a rich perspective and understanding of Ethnobiology, and a broad network of like-minded friends and colleagues. In recent years, I have been actively participated in activities by Ethnobiology across Latin America and the Ethnoecology and Biocultural Heritage Network in México. Also, I so, I have become a well known person among ethnobiologists across México, Central and South America. I envision that although Ethnobiology in the named region is quite strong, there is still a lot to do to strengthen relationships within the regional Ethnobiology associations – which I perceive as the focal points to reach the groups we are committed to support, especially local people – and between those regional associations and ISE. To accomplish that, I firmly believe that communication is the basis and so the less of my duties will be:

  1. To collaborate for the improvement of equity, cohesion, and mutual respect between ethnobiologists across the region, and so all together become a collective voice able to make proposals to the international agenda for the benefit of those who maintain and use biocultural diversity.
  2. To continue working for a more inclusive Ethnobiology across the continent, strengthening the participation of local people.
  3. To promote the implementation and amendments to local Codes of Ethics, according to the specific social, politic, economic, and biocultural contexts.
  4. To incentive the participation of countries that have not been very active yet in the Ethnobiology networks, such as those in the Caribbean, with whom language may represent a communication barrier.
  • North America: Olivia Sylvester was nominated by Kelly Bannister, Co-Chair of the ISE Ethics Program and she has accepted this nomination:

I nominate Olivia Sylvester for the North American Region Representative position on the ISE Board for 2014-16. Olivia is based in North America and has attended one congress in 2012 so she is eligible to stand for this position.

Rationale for nomination: Olivia is currently completing her 2012-14 ISE Board term as one the student representatives on the ISE Board. During this time I was able to work with her in a few capacities but most significantly in planning the student pre-congress workshop for 2014 and in her contributions to the ISE Ethics toolkit. In both of these cases, my experience has been that Olivia is an exceptional contributor and team player, highly organized, excellent written and verbal communication skills, great ideas and good at helping others share their ideas, a real “doer” as well as a thinker. She has been an important asset to the ISE over the last 2 years. For her relatively short career in ethnobiology and association with the ISE so far, Olivia has shown a deep understanding of and commitment to the Society and understanding of the core principles and practices upon which the ISE sees the discipline of ethnobiology to be based. In my view, her continuation on the ISE Board in this position would be invaluable to the ISE and also of benefit to her career path as she pursues a postdoc position.

Relevant background: Olivia is currently a University of Manitoba doctoral candidate who researches human rights to foods and food harvesting practices, particularly in rainforests. I believe she plans to complete her PhD within the next year. For her Masters, she examined people’s access to wild foods in two Costa Rican national parks. For her Ph.D., she collaborated with an Indigenous rights organization (Centro Skṍkĩ) to develop a project evaluating Bribri Indigenous rights to harvest forest foods and medicines within Costa Rica’s largest protected area. Olivia is a member of youth networks associated with the International Union for Conservation of Nature as well as the ISE; these networks work at the interface of policy and practice regarding biocultural issues. After her Ph.D., she plans to continue her work in Costa Rica and apply her background in ethnobotany and collaborative research to support human rights. She is developing a post-doctoral proposal using principles from Indigenous methodologies and collaborative research, and plans to examine the disconnect between forest management policy and human rights to cultural resources in forests (e.g., rights to food).

Sincerely,
Kelly Bannister

  • Asia: We received two self-nominations for this position who met the qualifications:

Jigme Dorji

I work for Department of Forests and Park Services in Bhutan as wildlife researcher. I have completed various professional training in forestry related field besides holding a Bachelors Degree in Forestry. Currently Jigme works for Royal Manas National Park as head of Integrated Conservation and Development Program. I became a member of ISE in 2010 and attended the First Asian Congress on Ethnobiology (FACE) in Taiwan in the same year. In 2012, I attended both ISE congress and pre-congress international student’s workshop at Montpellier, France where I presented a paper on Agro-Pastoralism, Barter System and Biodiversity Conservation: a self sustained Mountain Culture of Brokpa Community in the Bhutan Himalayas. I was a recipient of the Indigenous Participants travel award. As a member of ISE, my other contributions include articles in ISE newsletters. In June 2014, I will attend 14th ISE congress in Bhutan and also help student’s representative organize pre-congress student’s workshop. My current interest ranges from species research to organizing community based ecotourism in the park. I also works on human wildlife mitigation measures in the remote villages of the park. With sixteen years of experience in the field, I am very keen in working with the local communities in most remote areas in Bhutan. If I am elected as the regional representative of ISE, I hope to promote ISE code of ethics and deliver the mandate bestowed to ISE representative and members in general in the Asia Pacific region. I will also work on expanding ISE network in the region by trying to link with other related societies and institutions.

Ashok K. Jain

My plan for future if I am elected as ISE’s Asia representative: I’d like to prepare a network of all ethnobiologists working in different Asian countries and plan to publish a six monthly news letter with contact details and brief cv of ethnobiologists. On getting support, a book on “Medicinal Plants used by indigenous people of Asia” may also be published. I’d also like to organize seminar/ symposia/ workshop etc. for Asian ethnobiologists. I have attended 5 previous ISE congresses: the 13th Congress at Montpellier (France), 2012, the 10th at Chiangrai, Thailand 2006, the 9th at University of Kent, Cantebury, U.K., 2004, the 5th in Kenya, Nairobi, 1996, and the 4th Lucknow, 1994. Read Ashok’s full nomination.

  • Europe: Zsolt Molnar was nominated by Anna Varga, current ISE Student Representative, and he has accepted this nomination.

Zsolt Molnár has diverse experiences with studying traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), working with indigenous people, and preserving and disseminating the knowledge in local communities and students/lay person. He has several case studies on TEK and science comparisons, the effects of these knowledge systems on each other. The main methods of his research are interviewing and participatory observation. Zsolt Molnár is Hungarian, and thus semi-indigenous (he is studying his own culture). He mostly works in Hungary, but also in Central-Asia. The main focus of his work is TEK related to habitats, vegetation and landscapes, biodiversity and its dynamics, and the use of this knowledge in nature conservation (co-management) and environmental education. Zsolt Molnár is often an invited speaker at herders’ or other traditional festivals, local conferences and meetings. He is a botanist and ethnoecologist. He has been studying Hungarian cultural traditions since 1997, and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) since 2000 (after studying landscape history and mapping actual vegetation since 1988). He is working in two contrasting landscapes studying herders of Pannonian and Central-Asian steppes and peasants in the Carpathian mountains, but also doing research on pre-capitalistic sustainable management of village commons. He is one of the founders of the Eastern-European Group of Ethnobiologists. He was the co-organizer of two conference sessions on habitat related TEK (ISE-conference, Montpellier, 2012; SoE-conference, Texas, 2013), organizes ethnoecological seminars for students and practitioners. He organized two summer student research camps with the participation of local children, elders and university students. He has 15 papers (6 with IF, but mostly in the local language), 10 book chapters, and one bilingual book on traditional ecological knowledge. The book is a syntheses of TEK of the Hortobágy steppes written for local documention to help its maintenance and use in education and conservation. Read Zsolt’s full nomination.

  • Oceania and Pacific Islands: We received one self nomination for this position: Yih-Ren Lin

I am an active member of the International Society of Ethnobiology, having taken part in the work of setting up the code of ethics for work with indigenous peoples (including Chinese translation) and was invited to be a part of the international research team. I was elected the ISE Asian representative in 2008, and hosted the First Asian Conference of Ethnobiology in 2009 in Taiwan. In 2013, I continue to collaborate with ISE to launch the Mountain Climate Initiative (MCI) and establish the collaborative relationship between Taiwan’s Tayal communities and Potato Park communities in Peru. This work has effectively encouraged Taiwan’s Tayal people’s contribution to the whole society in terms of ecological issues and brought in new vision through the international collaboration to reflect upon Taiwan government’s policy on climate change. I also organize a team including indigenous representatives and scholars to attend the ISE Bhutan Congress and hope to widen the communication and collaborative circle in terms of these global issues. In the past few years, I have actively participated in related international conferences concerning indigenous people and traditional ecological knowledge, and have invited American, Canadian, British, Australian, and other key scholars to Taiwan for scholarly exchange. Since Taiwan’s indigenous people is part of the Austronesian people and Taiwan the place is believed to be the very early departing point for the people’s grand migration within the several thousands years. The linguistic affinity and similar socio-ecological knowledge amongst the Austronesian peoples in different countries might have something in common to share upon and contribute their knowledge to the even larger international world. My vision as the candidate for the Oceanic representative is to promote the network, communication and mutual help amongst the Austronesian people in terms of their local ecological knowledge. In addition, I am also keen to facilitate the integral communities development by the ways of environmental education and eco-tourism based on sound ecological knowledge. International workshops, communities exposure and conferences are tools that I will adopt to meet the goals. Read Yih-Ren’s full nomination.

Nominations for the appointed positions of Student Representative remains open. Please send nominations to both Sarah-Lan Mathez-Stiefel ([email protected]) and Natasha Duarte ([email protected]).