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Transforming Approaches to Forests and Forestry through Traditional and Local Knowledges Conference


  • University of British Columbia Vancover, BC Canada (map)

We are pleased to share with you details of an upcoming IUFRO conference on Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), ‘Transforming approaches to forests and forestry through Traditional and Local Knowledges: Reciprocity and relationship-building in forest ecosystems’ to be held on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Territory, at the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Forestry 21-23 August 2019

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Information on Abstract Submission:

Principled, reciprocal relationships between researchers and Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) are at the heart of this conference. Through this event, we welcome knowledge holders of forestry and the environment to share their experiences in building equitable relationships within customary territories. We hope to provide a point of convergence for Indigenous, Local and Western Knowledges, to challenge power dynamics between different ways of knowing, and to model the equitable co-production and sharing of knowledge. Accordingly, the Organizing Committee supports joint presentations, joint papers, and joint projects by and for researchers and IPLCs.

The conference will include an initial day of relationship building among all participants and talks, a panel discussion and workshop events on the following two days. Our objective is to host a different kind of conference that positions the needs, perspectives, and authority of IPLCs at the centre of social-ecological research.

Individual submissions (abstracts)

We invite submission of individual abstracts for poster and oral presentations, artistic performances and exhibitions, songs, workshops, roundtable and panel discussions, and storytelling of up to 300 words addressing one of the following conference themes:

1.      Upholding and disseminating forest research practices that comply with Indigenous laws and protocols

2.      Weaving Indigenous, Local and Scientific Knowledges and practices together in cross-scale/cross-border/collaborative/participatory forest planning

3.      Emerging strategies and technologies for protecting data sovereignty

4.      Relational ways of knowing: IPLC cosmologies, more-than-human agency, Rights to Nature

5.      Arts-based and IPLC research methods / outputs

6.      TEK and food sovereignty

Abstracts should include a description of how principled, reciprocal relationships between researchers and Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) are being, or have been, upheld as part of the research process.

The deadline for abstracts has now been EXTENDED to 15 March 2019. Accepted abstracts will be notified by 15 April 2019. See http://tek.forestry.ubc.ca for more information.