Montpellier 2012, a crossroads of cultural and biological diversity: 13th Congress of the International Society of Ethnobiology
20/12/2011 - Press release
From 20 to 25 May 2012, the International Society of Ethnobiology (ISE) will be holding its 13th Congress, for the first time in France, in Montpellier (Corum Centre), on the topic of cultural diversity and biological diversity for sustainable development: exploring the past in order to build the future.
The Congress* is part of the monitoring process for ISE's operations: participatory research-action and citizen science. It will be attended by a number of ethnobiology researchers and representatives of indigenous peoples, traditional societies and local communities from all five continents.
The history of manmade change will be analysed to provide a clearer picture of the components and dynamics of current global diversity. Particular attention will be paid to past human activity and the existing know-how among indigenous communities, with a view to coming up with more sustainable ways of managing natural resources in future.
An original congress in Montpellier, a "global village"
There are also plans for intercultural sessions, events for the general public, teaching projects in schools and extracurricular activities, to enable researchers, decision-makers, representatives of indigenous peoples and of NGOs, students, and members of the public to pool their knowledge and experience of sustainable natural resource management.
To conclude, the Forum for Indigenous Peoples will be drafting a "Call from Montpellier" to be read at the Rio+20 Earth Summit in June 2012.
This topic will be at home in Montpellier, a city that leads the way in terms of research on such issues and is also home to numerous organizations and associations involved in the field of sustainable development and biodiversity management.
* The Congress is being organized by the Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD), with support from Agropolis International and the help of CIRAD, the CNRS, EPHE, de Montpellier SupAgro and the Universities of Montpellier 1, 2 and 3, which head the following Joint Research Units: CEFE (Centre of Evolutionary and Functional Ecology) and GRED (Governance, Risk, Environment, Development).
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A few figures
• more than 600 participants from all over the world
• some forty sessions
• 450 contributions
• around a hundred representatives of indigenous peoples
• 60 countries represented
• 50 teaching projects involving 1100 students
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- Category: Coming up