International Conference of the Southwest Pole of the Institute of the Americas, October 11-13, 2017, University Bordeaux Montaigne and University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux (FR)
The international conference „Forest in the Americas,“ a scientific manifestation of the Southwest Pole of the Institute of the Americas, aims at refining knowledge about the fragile ecosystem of forests, and at improving the understanding of the roles they play in the imagination and development of both ancient and modern societies of the Americas. On every part of the continent, the forst is of prime importance, from Amazonian tropical rainforests to Canadian boreal forests; to all kinds of temperate forests. Nations such as Brazil, Canada, and the United States and Peru are among the ten countries with the largest forested land. Other nations, in Central America and the Caribbean islands, are also rich in forested areas sheltering often endemic fauna and flora.
The countries and the actors concerned by forestry rarely agree on common definitions of what constitutes a forest. The study of this theme poses first a conceptual and methodological problem that the participants will be encouraged to discuss. Another purpose of the conference is to define precisely, through interdisciplinary dialogue and comparative studies, the notions commonly used by scholars to talk about the forest. On this lexical and semantic foundation, diverse representations of the forest will be analyzed.
Because it is a major feature of the continent’s geography, the forest has always occupied a predominant place in the imagination of American populations, as illustrated in mythology, literature, and the arts. For example, the United States and Canada, as well as different South American nations, tell their history as a struggle between civilization and wilderness, notably embodied by the forest. A place of perdition and bewilderment for men, or a shelter for runaway populations and maroons, then the matrix of a new man – in the large part of the 19th and 20th century-U.S. literature and arts, the forest appears ambiguous and multifaceted in its representations.
Doctoral students and confirmed researchers are invited to study the diversity and the complexity of the symbolic, immaterial and material dimensions of the forest and to try to answer several major questions. During the building of the territories and the large cultural areas of the Americas, how were the forested immensities understood and represented? Were they perceived and experienced in the same way from the north to the south of the continent, by indigenous peoples, by colonizers, by intellectuals, and by artists? As early as the beginnings of the peopling of the continent, were they imagined and conceived by the ruling and business people as an asset or an obstacle to economic development? Scholars are expected to analyze the challenges and the risks of all kinds, old and new, to which American nations are confronted as far as forestry is concerned. Forest resources provide a significant part of American economic income. In Canada, for instance, they represent about 20% of exports and 10% of employment. However, forests are fragile ecosystems, sensitive to global changes, which should lead scholars to raise and try to answer a series of questions: when did forests become an object of attention and preservation? When and how were conservation movements born? What were their ideologies and claims? What role did the pioneer environmentalists and conservationist movements play in the establishment of the first forest reserves at the end of the 19th century? What role did the forest play in the movement for the creation of national parks in North America? Moreover, what is the current influence of climate change on the aquatic and land biodiversity of forests? How is this change felt by local populations, and how do they adapt their practices to it? Finally, in the age of agro-industrial development, what problems are caused by deforestation due to the creation of more agricultural and pasture lands?
In spite of increasing mobilization of international institutions and NGOs since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, forest acreage, in particular in the tropical area, has decreased, along with its biodiversity. According to some specialists, the ambitious approach of sustainable forest management appears to be the only realistic one. Thus, as far as forest resources management and development are concerned, participants may also reflect upon the possible ways to confront new threats. Are there any isolated or collective, public or private initiatives, aiming at preserving forest balance and ensuring sustainable development? Forests play diverse and unequal roles in territory management. What policies would allow for the ecological and economic viability of these ecosystems? What political and social actors should intervene in the elaboration and implementation of environmental public policies?
This conference is organized by the Southwest Pole of the Institute of the Americas, at the University Bordeaux Montaigne and the University of Bordeaux, between October 11th and 13th, 2017. Bordeaux is the capital of the New Aquitaine Region, known for being the largest forested area in France, and the most productive forest in Europe.
Abstracts (no more than ten lines), as well as five keywords and a short résumé, should be sent before February 28th, 2017, to Eric Dubesset (Référent IdA pour l’Université de Bordeaux), Lionel Larré (Référent IdA pour l’Université Bordeaux Montaigne), and Anne Stefani (Déléguée régionale du Pôle Sud-Ouest de l’IdA).