The Society for Ethnobotany

Fostering research and education on the past, present, and future uses of plants by people.

SOCIETY FOR ECONOMIC BOTANY

Dear Friends,

The December issue of Economic Botany will publish soon.  You can already see most of the terrific articles online by logging in at www.econbot.org.  If any of these perk your interest, check out the journal online today! 

  • The Wild Orchid Trade in a Mexican Local Market: Diversity and Economics
  • Morels of Palas Valley, Pakistan: A Potential Source for Generating Income and Improving Livelihoods of Mountain Communities
  • The Eruption of Technology in Traditional Medicine: How Social Media Guides the Sale of Natural Plant Products in the Sonoran Desert Region

We have already received over 170 responses to our membership survey!  Thank you, everyone.  If you have not done so already, please contribute your opinions in this SEB surveyThe SEB council needs your help in planning for the future andimproving our current activities such as publications, conferences and outreach. Our goal with this survey is to collect your critical feedback on how to make the organization more appealing to existing and future members.

Did you know that we have a very active community on Facebook?  With over 3,600 fans there, we are constantly posting information of interested and garnering intriguing comments from members and non-members.   We are also actively posting on Twitter.  Check us out on these social media channels!  Besides those places, you will want to keep an eye on the SEB Annual Conference web page.  Already, there is much information posted about our upcoming meeting: Resilience in the Face of Resource Extraction: Ethnobotany and Exploitation, including registration fees and travel information.  Registration and abstract submission will open in the new year. 


GIFT MEMBERSHIPS:
Give a NEW student a gift membership for only $10.  We also invite you to take advantage of the opportunity of giving gift associate memberships to colleagues from developing countries at the rate of $10. This is an easy way to introduce promising young professionals to our community. 

We have such a wonderful international community.  Wishing you all a productive and fulfilling 2016!

All the very best,

Cassandra Quave, President
Society for Economic Botany
 
Mission: To foster and encourage scientific research, education, and related activities on the past, present, and future uses of plants, and the relationship between plants and people, and to make the results of such research available to the scientific community and the general public through meetings and publications.

Society for Economic Botany
4475 Castleman Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63110
Ph. 314-577-9566, Fx 314-577-9515
www.EconBot.org


 

SOCIETY FOR ECONOMIC BOTANY
November 10, 2015

Dear Members of the Society for Economic Botany:
 
Since I last wrote in August, we have been making steady progress in the planning of our meeting next year to be held at the Pine Mountain Settlement School, located in the rural mountains of Harlan County, Kentucky from June 5-9th, 2016.  We have already added a pre-conference festival and a post-conference field trip as added opportunities to enhance your conference experience. 

The conference theme is Resilience in the Face of Resource Extraction: Ethnobotany and Exploitation. This conference will discuss approaches to protecting biodiversity and cultural traditions in times of economic transition. The coalfields of southern Appalachia embody the tensions between economic and environmental sustainability. Traditional Appalachian culture is deeply connected to the native flora and fauna, yet resource extraction continues to shape the geography and economic future of the region. Stay updated on meeting details by joining the event page on Facebook HERE. We expect to have a call for papers up on the website before the end of the year, along with additional details about the venue, field trips, transportation etc.

I am excited to announce that Tony Cunningham has been selected as the 2016 Distinguished Economic Botanist. We look forward to his speech at the annual DEB address this summer.
 
If you missed out on the meeting in South Africa this year, I encourage you to catch up on some of the filmed presentations, which are available HERE. SEB also has an active social media presence, and photos and tweets from the meeting can be found on our Twitter page;@SEBotany and with the hashtag #SEBIPUF15. If you are not already doing so, I encourage you to follow us on our pages with Twitter and/or Facebook.

Our Society newsletter, <a $1/the%u2026/Econbot/pdfs/PandP/2015_fall.pdf" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 153); font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;">Plants and People, has just published! It is chock full of great news for economic and ethnobotanists. Check it out!

The latest issue of our journal, Economic Botany, is available in print and online. If you haven't explored the exciting new articles, I encourage you to do so.  Just log in with your SEB log in at www.econbot.org to view current and past issues.   The research in our Society-run journal spans the globe, from Vanuatu to Brazil, South Africa to China, our coverage is as diverse as the interests of our members.  Interested in submitting an article to Economic Botany?  Check out the Instructions for Authors and send us your latest research.
 

For our student members, it is never too early to start thinking about applying for the Richard E Schultes Research Award.  This is an annual student research award(s) of up to $2500 intended to help defray the costs of field work on a topic related to economic botany. Competition is limited to graduate students who are members of the Society, or members who have received their degree within a year. Applicants will be judged by an ad-hoc committee of Society members and awards will be granted by June 30 each year. Recipients are expected to submit a manuscript based upon their proposed research for publication in Economic Botany.

Finally, a reminder that it will soon be time to renew your membership for the Society.  Stay connected to this fabulous community.  Be thinking about students who might benefit from a $10 gift membership in SEB.  Gift memberships can be given at the time of your renewal, or throughout the year.  Pleasecontinue to be ambassadors for our Society by encouraging students and other colleagues around the world to join us in our mission. Sending a few personal notes of invitation to join can make a meaningful impact on our membership numbers.
 
All my best,
Cassandra L. Quave, PhD
President, Society for Economic Botany

Society for Economic Botany Office
PO Box 299  |  St. Louis Missouri, 63166
Direct (314) 566-6842  |  Office (314) 577-9566  |  Fx (314) 577-9515  |  

Mission: To foster and encourage scientific research, education, and related activities on the past, present, and future uses of plants, and the relationship between plants and people, and to make the results of such research available to the scientific community and the general public through meetings and publications. 



SOCIETY FOR ECONOMIC BOTANY
August 4, 2015

Dear Members of the Society for Economic Botany:
 
It is my great privilege and honor to serve as the SEB President this year! This is an exciting time to be involved with the Society and I look forward to working with you all in contributing to the mission and vision of SEB. I have much news to share here regarding our recent meeting, elections, awards and future meeting plans. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. I am eager to facilitate your involvement in the Society.
 
It was wonderful to see many of you at our recent annual meeting in Clanwilliam, South Africa, nestled in the beautiful Cederberg Mountains! This meeting was a tremendous success and marked the first time that SEB has met on the African continent, reaffirming our commitment to engagement with our international members. This was also our first joint meeting with the Indigenous Plant use Forum. There were 211 attendees from 23 countries that presented 98 papers and 66 posters at our 56th annual conference, which made for a collegial and truly international exchange of research and ideas.
 
One of the special highlights of the meeting included a series of “Teaching <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_114187394" tabindex="0" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;">Tuesday” workshops on topics such as: Intellectual property rights and access and benefit sharing; Interviewing Techniques; Connecting students to ecology through culture; and much more. Another special event during the meeting included a mid-week fieldtrip to see the Rooibos industry up close, with guided tours of the local Rooibos (Aspalathus linearis) farms and a processing factory.  We were also treated to an inspirational talk entitled “The Accidental Botanist” by Daniel Moerman, our 2015 Distinguished Economic Botanist. You can watch the DEB talk online HERE.
 
Due to the generous support of Nature publishing group and anonymous donations from the SEB membership, we were pleased to offer competitive travel grants this year to four young professionals. Congratulations to: Sinagabé Korogone, James Lyles, Vanessa Mardones andLaura Smith! This is an opportunity that I would love to see continued in the future as it makes a meaningful impact on scholars who would otherwise be unable to attend the meeting. If you would like to support travel grants for students and international members in the future, please contact me. Every donation, no matter the size, can make a real difference!
 
The caliber of scientific presentations by both the SEB and IPUF membership was phenomenal, and this was especially true of the student members at the meeting. Congratulations to Andrew Semotuik, the Edmund H. Fulling Award recipient for best oral presentation by a young professional and to Sandra Bogdanova, the Julia F. Morton Award recipient for best poster presentation by a young professional. The Society is also dedicated to supporting the development of young scientists in the field and the Richard Evan Schultes Research Award is the embodiment of this spirit. This year’s recipient of the Schultes award is Annie Virnig. Congratulations to all and many thanks to the awards committees for your careful consideration of the candidates!
 
This year we lost a dedicated and treasured member of SEB. Daniel F. Austin served for many years as both the Book Review Editor and the Chair of the Mary W. Klinger Book Award.Bradley Bennett has written a beautiful tribute to Dan’s work and career in a recent issue ofEconomic Botany, which can be accessed either by logging in to your account at www.econbot.org or directly HERE.  
 
I would like to thank Wendy Applequist for taking on the role of Book Review Editor following Dan’s passing, and encourage you to submit books for review in the journal to her. If you are interested in writing a book review for the journal, please contact Wendy. During this period of transition, selection of the Klinger Book Award recipient has been delayed. We hope to announce the winner later this fall.
 
If you missed out on the meeting this year, I encourage you to catch up on some of the filmed presentations, which are available HERE. SEB also has an active social media presence, and photos and tweets from the meeting can be found on our Twitter page ;@SEBotany and with the hashtag #SEBIPUF15. If you are not already doing so, I encourage you to follow us on our pages with Twitter and/or Facebook.
 
This meeting wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work of the organizing committees of both IPUF and SEB! I’d like to extend a very special thanks to our SEB-IPUF liason, Thomas Brendler; the IPUF organizing committee: Emmy Reinten, Ben-Erik van Wyk, Helen Long,Gerda de Wet, Margaret Hulley, Ashton Ruiters, Kemi Sobiyi, Janneke Nortje, Maponya Lelaka, Tommy Mabassa, and Helen de Wet; the SEB organizing committee: Rick Stepp,Sunshine Brosi, Nanci Ross, Annie Virnig, and Lisa Philander; and to the SEB business office staff: Bill Dahl, Heather Cacanindin, Johanne Stogran, and Rob Brandt.
 
Besides the awards announced at the meeting, we also have some exciting election results to share! First, thank you to all of the candidates who ran for election this cycle. We greatly value your commitment to the future of SEB! Congratulations to our newly elected members of the SEB Council: Diane Ragone (President-Elect), Darach Lupton (Council Member-at-Large),Sonia Peter (Council Member-At-Large) and Sandra Bogdanova (Student Representative). Congratulations also to the newly elected members of the Student Committee: Matthew Bondand Ghita Heidt! Many thanks to our outgoing Council members for their exceptional commitment and service to SEB: Bob Bye, Steven Casper, Nanci Ross and Annie Virnig.

I am excited to announce that our next SEB meeting will be held at the Pine Mountain Settlement School, located in the rural mountains of Harlan County, Kentucky from June 5-9th, 2016.  It is located 2 hours away from the Tri-Cities Airport in Johnson City, Tennessee (TRI).  Shuttles will be available for an additional fee. The conference theme is Resilience in the Face of Resource Extraction: Ethnobotany and Exploitation. This conference will discuss approaches to protecting biodiversity and cultural traditions in times of economic transition. The coalfields of southern Appalachia embody the tensions between economic and environmental sustainability. Traditional Appalachian culture is deeply connected to the native flora and fauna, yet resource extraction continues to shape the geography and economic future of the region. Stay updated on meeting details by joining the event page on Facebook HERE. More information on the meeting will be posted on the SEB website later this fall.
 
The SEB Council has made a commitment to arranging for advance planning of our future meetings and I am pleased to announce that we also have a meeting site confirmed for 2017 in Bragança, Portugal! This will be an exciting opportunity to engage with our extensive membership in Europe. We are looking for more US-based meeting sites for 2018 and 2019 and we encourage you to submit a proposal for consideration. We have formed a special ad-hoc committee this year tasked with creating a guidance document for preparing meeting proposals and I am happy to share this information with you upon request.

The latest issue of our journal, Economic Botany, is available in print and online. If you haven't explored the exciting new articles, I encourage you to do so.  Just log in with your SEB log in at www.econbot.org to view current and past issues. We also have exciting news from the journal: our most recent Impact Factor is 1.20, representing a 66% increase from last year. Robert Voeks, our Journal Editor, has also been working closely with the Student Committee over the past year and I am excited to announce that he has launched a new initiative aimed at training the generation of reviewers for Economic Botany. Twelve young professionals (graduate students and post-docs) were selected following a competitive application process to be paired with members of theEconomic Botany Editorial Board. The expected outcomes of this program include detailed feedback for submissions to the journal, a valuable training opportunity for the junior reviewers, and generation of a new group of highly-trained reviewers to contribute to the Journal mission in the future.
  
Dedicated members are the core of any society, and I greatly appreciate all of your support for SEB’s work and mission. We are in particular need of increasing our membership.  Pleasecontinue to be ambassadors for our Society by encouraging students and other colleagues around the world to join us in our mission. Sending a few personal notes of invitation to join can make a meaningful impact on our membership numbers. You can also provide a $10 gift membership to a student at any time. I also encourage you to share the SEB Student Blog with your students. This is a new resource containing extensive lists of funding opportunities, fieldwork equipment recommendations, and a directory of ethnobotany programs are available for SEB Student members. Members-only webinars, mentorship, and other resources will also be coming to the site soon.

The Society for Economic Botany is what we make of it and I encourage you to get involved! We will be appointing committee memberships soon. The full list of committees is available HERE. Please let me know if you are interested in volunteering for service on a specific committee. In addition to committee service, there are many ways to contribute to the society: you can submit news and notices to the newsletter, make suggestions for what you would like to see at future meetings and make yourself heard. Please feel free to contact me or anyone else on council if we can be of assistance.
 
All my best,
Cassandra L. Quave, PhD
President, Society for Economic Botany








Society for Economic Botany Office
PO Box 299  |  St. Louis Missouri, 63166
Direct (314) 566-6842  |  Office (314) 577-9566  |  Fx (314) 577-9515  |  

Mission: To foster and encourage scientific research, education, and related activities on the past, present, and future uses of plants, and the relationship between plants and people, and to make the results of such research available to the scientific community and the general public through meetings and publications. 
 
Copyright © 2015 Society for Economic Botany, All rights reserved. 

Cassandra Quave