Indigenous Peoples Specialty Group
Sponsored Session
2008 Annual Meeting
Association of American Geographers
Boston, Massachusettes, April 15-19 2008

Title:

Diverse Economies I: Nontimber Forest Products As Lens for Political Ecology and Diverse Economies

Description:

Wild edibles, medicinals, etc., collectively known as nontimber forest products (NTFPs), offer a grounded way to examine some of the central concerns of political ecology and diverse economies.  The papers collected in this session demonstrate the potential for research focused on NTFPs to be productive for both theory and practice in these geographic subfields.  Further, this session suggests that studies combining the perspectives of political ecology and diverse economies in the examination of NTFPs can illuminate the intersections of daily (economic) practices and resource politics at scales from the local to the global. In particular, our papers look at:

• identity politics in natural resource conservation and management in the US mid-Atlantic;
• effects of global markets for high-value Amazonian NTFPs on local and regional actors;
• role of amenity-driven development in (unevenly) reterritorializing access to natural resources by the Gullah community in South Carolina
• production of community economies and hybrid ecological knowledges by gatherers in inner-urban Brisbane; and
• tupelo honey production as a case study in the complementary potential of political ecology and participatory action research

Anticipated Attendance:

30

Organizers:

Chairs:

Participants:

Sponsorships:

Indigenous Peoples Specialty Group
Rural Geography Specialty Group
Economic Geography Specialty Group