Centering an Indigenous approach to forestry through reciprocity, not extraction

About this episode

The episode discusses the importance of Indigenous knowledge in forestry practices through an interview with Erica Gies about her experiences with Suzanne Simard.

Forester and scientist Suzanne Simard is well known for her landmark 1997 paper , which demonstrated that two distinct species of trees could share resources. At the time, it turned traditional Western forestry thinking on its head. Instead of the Darwinian view of trees as being in competition with each other, it introduced the idea that these trees may actually help each other, and that industrial logging practices may be missing the forest for the trees. In recent years, Simard has been advocating for Indigenous knowledge as the only way to save the Earth and its forests. Environmental reporter Erica Gies spent some time in the field with Simard and her colleagues, looking into her latest project, The Mother Tree Project , which seeks to find the most sustainable form of forestry for both people and ecosystems. Gies joins the Mongabay Newscast to explain what she learned from Simard and why she advocates Indigenous knowledge and systems, which are governed by rules of reciprocity. A shift in her thinking occurred when she read the dissertation of fisheries ecologist Teresa Sm'hayetsk Ryan, who now works with Simard. "She realized that, you know, the people were also a very…

People in this episode

Host: Mongabay.com

Guest: Erica Gies

Topics covered

• Indigenous knowledge
• forestry
• sustainability
• reciprocity
• environmental science

Keywords

• forestry
• Indigenous knowledge
• sustainability
• reciprocity
• environmental science
• Suzanne Simard
• The Mother Tree Project

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Mother Tree Project

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