Ethnobiologists are capable of making transformative scientific contributions when they participate in localized direct actions and acts of colonial dissent. Direct action tactics like blockades, protests, and re-occupations of territories are often used as (alternative) approaches for marginalized and disenfranchised communities who face expensive and oppressive justice systems. As natural resource extraction and development in settler nations continues to have uneven impacts on Indigenous Peoples and communities, this research reviews the long history of resistance to colonial expansion on the “frontier” of northwestern British Columbia, Canada. Currently, an emergent trend for legalizing and legitimizing resource extraction in rural and frontier communities is through consultation and impact assessment processes. These processes can undermine scientific rigor and hierarchies of knowledge that undercut Indigenous Peoples' knowledge, and rights to use and be on their territories. Using ethnobiological research methods to fuse cultural and natural scientific prescriptions of land use, we consider how cultural resistance camps—primarily Lelu Island, but also Madii Lii—are troves of Tsm'syen and Gitxsan experiential knowledge and cultural exchange, while resisting powerful and well-funded liquid natural gas (LNG) development in traditional territories. Ethnobiologists working in these contexts are challenged to support and stand behind their Indigenous colleagues to transform the frontier into a frontline and foster rigorous scientific research alongside Indigenous resistance.

This research analyzes the roles of action ethnobiology and public anthropology in “ecological distribution conflicts”—disputes over the benefits and burdens of natural resources—in policy-oriented research and advocacy. It considers the Natural Resources Defense Council's (NRDC) international campaigns to protect “frontier landscapes” of the Western hemisphere. Specifically, I examine case studies in Chilean Patagonia and the boreal forest region in the Canadian Northeast. Despite geographical, historical, and cultural differences, NRDC's campaigns in these two regions involved a shared focus on developing advocacy strategies that draw on biocultural knowledge to advance stronger environmental protections. NRDC and its local partners used ethnoecology as an environmental tactic to protect rivers from proposed large hydroelectric dam projects in Chile, and drew upon ethnozoology to preserve caribou threatened by industrial logging in Canada. To consider the synergies and tensions of environmental advocacy and Indigenous sovereignty in these two instances, I analyze partnerships between environmental activists, lawyers, and scientists on the one hand, and Indigenous leaders and local residents on the other. Taking a public anthropological approach, this comparative research sheds light on the role of action ethnobiology as a condition of possibility for advocacy to enhance environmental sustainability and Indigenous sovereignty across the Americas.

Ethnobiology is well positioned to work in tandem with biomonitoring research to create a more complete understanding of how people experience and are affected by contaminated environments. Indigenous communities in proximity to unconventional natural gas (“fracking”) facilities face potential health risks that are often poorly assessed or not assessed at all. This contribution reviews a biomonitoring pilot research project in British Columbia (Canada) that was informed by Indigenous Peoples' concerns of contaminant exposure from traditional foods and their environment. Preliminary biomonitoring results indicate higher levels of a benzene metabolite in pregnant Indigenous women near fracking facilities, compared to what measured in non-Indigenous women. We investigate how Indigenous Peoples' concerns of exposure to industrial contaminants should inform biomonitoring and toxicological studies and, conversely, how biomonitoring studies can complement ethnobiological research with assessable data. By focusing on environmental knowledge and human health in the context of oil and gas development, we critically evaluate how action, environmental justice, and scientific research can and should contribute to more ethical and methodological frameworks and practices. Together, ethnobiology and biomonitoring can be used to fill in important knowledge gaps in environmental health and ethical research practices.

Researchers working with Indigenous nations often recognize the need to build respectful relationships with nation representatives, but too often assume that everyone has the same understandings of respect and accountability. Relational accountability, an ethical guideline for conducting research with Indigenous nation partners, references the kincentric beliefs among many Indigenous Peoples. It implies that researchers are responsible for nurturing honorable relationships with community collaborators and are accountable to the entirety of the community in which they work, potentially including collaborators' more-than-human network of relations. This research examines relational accountability in ethnobiology and other research contexts, with a focus on work within Anishnaabe territories. Anishnaabe inawendiwin, a teaching about kinship, provides a path for centering research ethics and praxis in Anishnaabe ways of knowing and being. Anishnaabe inawendiwin urges us to remain committed to Indigenous nation partners regardless of budgets and beyond research grant timelines; to attend to accountabilities towards more-than-human communities; to foster loving, personal relationships with research partners; and to involve youth genuinely in the partnerships.

Attention has turned in the past 30 years to the situation of Indigenous Peoples in National Parks and protected areas worldwide. Their position brings historical problems, as well as new opportunities, for applied ethnobiology to contribute to cooperative management situations that could help rectify past injustices. In the mid-1990s, the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe began a struggle for land within and surrounding Death Valley National Park, California. This was capped by the passage of the Timbisha Shoshone Homeland Act in 2000. It granted the Tribe trust lands and the right to co-manage additional lands held by the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Ethnobiology was used during negotiations to document the extent and uses of Timbisha traditional lands through ethnobotanical, ethnozoological, traditional resource and environmental management (TREM), and place name studies. The Tribe then initiated a pilot project in applied ethnobiology to bring TREM back to their lands through a honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) and singleleaf pinyon pine (Pinus monophylla) management project, designed to demonstrate to the agencies the value of traditional care practices. The project was in place for two years when problems arose that could not be easily resolved. This case study outlines some of the procedures used and the problems encountered. It also illustrates the value of the project, as well as some of the frustrations that can occur during the course of an applied ethnobiology project.

Following the 1988 International Congress of Ethnobiology, at which the Belém Declaration had been adopted, Darrell Posey published a global call to action for researchers and policy makers to address outstanding issues related to the protection of Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) (1990a). ILK protections are today largely treated as a matter of intellectual property rights, a field whose global political landscape has undergone intense regulation and critical scrutiny since the time at which Posey was writing. This paper provides an update on the state of intellectual property policy as it relates to the “just compensation” of Indigenous and local communities, while also addressing how global bodies and various national governments have grappled with Posey's suggestions. Additionally, we highlight how the shortcomings of national and international policy to address outstanding issues related to intellectual property have affected cultural, ecological, and biological conservation. In conclusion, an update to Posey's suggestions is offered in light of the Belém +30 Congress (August 7–10, 2018) and of ongoing developments in intellectual property policy.

Widespread reduction in traditional foods has been extensively documented around the world, despite a growing scholarship in ethnobiology and nutrition studies attesting to the value and importance of traditional food systems. A processual ethnobiology approach—one attuned to the historically situated nature of traditional ecological knowledge, and the influence and interplay of micro- and macro-level forces—may offer new insights into processes of dietary change and continuity. Using this perspective, I present a case study from Southern Bolivia on rural peoples' descriptions of how and why their foodways have changed over time, as well as how their traditional food system is being sustained. I draw on data gathered over 12 months through interviews, participation, participant observation, and document review. Animal protein and commercial crop production promotion and discourses disparaging traditional meals are some of the factors affecting availability, affordability, and acceptability of traditional foods. Nevertheless, there are also many examples of how local foods and recipes have been adapted, rather than abandoned, and of promising initiatives rebuilding the prestige and cultural acceptability of traditional foods. These findings suggest a more complex and nuanced process of dietary change than is often posited in the nutrition transition model. Place-specific, historically informed understandings of how attitudes, availability, and other factors have influenced local food systems are needed to develop policies and programs that effectively respond to locally identified concerns surrounding the continuity of traditional food use.

Local ethnobiological knowledge offers critical insights into ecological processes, species diversity, and abundance, as well as changes in environmental conditions. Although ethnomycological knowledge remains understudied compared to local knowledge about plants and animals, wild fungi are important components of healthy, functioning ecosystems. Wild fungi are also integral to many social and economic systems. Yunnan Province, China, is home to both a wide diversity of wild edible mushrooms and extensive human-fungi relationships. Understanding local ecological and mycological knowledge is critical for conserving ecological systems and promoting sustainable livelihoods. This study investigates indigenous Yi ethnomycological knowledge in four communities in Nanhua County using both interviews and harvesting observations. The comparative merits and limitations of each method are assessed. Around 90 unique, named folk species were reported or observed in the study communities, with 54 species reported multiple times. Local mushroom names encode information about local ecology, species morphology, and abstract metaphorical ideas. In addition, harvesters variably referred to mushrooms in Yi, Mandarin, or with general descriptive categories, suggesting a link between species use, value, and naming conventions. This study found that directly observing mushroom harvests captured more detailed knowledge compared to recall-based interviews, including both a greater number of species and a more nuanced, multi-leveled taxonomic system. However, interviews revealed the cultural salience, economic values, and culinary preferences for many local mushroom species. These results highlight the importance of mixed-methods approaches to ethnoecological knowledge, as both recall and observational data may lead to different conclusions about local species abundance and diversity.

Traditional communities, such as quilombos, often make use of a variety of plant resources. This study aims to describe and classify the state of conservation of woody species of surviving forest remnants used by the quilombo community of Ipiranga, on the Southern coast of Paraíba state in northeastern Brazil. Data on plant use were obtained through semi-structured interviews using the snowball sampling method. Plant availability in nature was determined through a phytosociological survey. Species were grouped into categories by use and their use value (UV), conservation priority index (CPI), and phytosociological parameters were calculated. A total of 64 species (27 families, 44 genera) were cited as useful. The informants attributed 48 types of uses to the plants, with the technology category being the richest. Many of the uses involve extracting the trunk, used mainly to make support stakes for yam plantations and handicrafts. Based on their CPI scores, 16 species fell into category 1 (high priority for conservation), 41 fell into category 2 (intermediary priority for conservation), and seven fell into category 3 (species suitable for extraction with few restrictions). Plants with the highest CPI scores are those with the greatest use value and lowest density in the forest inventory. Most of the plants used need a plan of management considering means of extraction and the frequency with which they are collected. Initial conservation efforts should focus on Handroanthus impetiginosus (pau d'arco) and Bowdichia virgilioides (sucupira), as these have the highest CPI ranking, low density, and uses primarily related to the extraction of bast fibers and wood.