ICEHO Bulletin 7

The International Consortium of Environmental
History Organizations is a ‘network of networks’for environmental history in universities,
museums, publishers and other institutions.
We sponsor International Congresses every 5
years (next one in 2019). Between Congresses,
we work actively to promote environmental
history in all its forms: as scholarship andresearch, informing public policy and education,and in promoting collaboration between
environmental historians around the world. Our
website is regularly updated – we are keen to
publicise your conferences and events:

http://www.iceho.org/

A very happy new year to you and to yourorganization! Environmental history is gatheringpace in 2016.
We have already begun planning for our
General Assembly in Seattle, USA, hosted by theAmerican Society of Environmental History. Thanks
to Lisa Mighetto and the ASEH conference
committee, we have a meeting room within theregular ASEH conference on Friday 1 April 2016.
Please come if you can, or send a delegate torepresent your organization at the meeting. Please
see website for by-laws of the Consortium and thevoting and other formal procedures for theoccasion.

ICEHO

GENERAL ASSEMBLY Friday 1 April 201
6.15 -7.30pm
Cascade 2 Room (mezzanine)
Westin Hotel Seattle

1900 5th Avenue Seattle, Washington 98101 United States

Attention: incoming board
there will be a short board meeting after the
General Assembly 7.30-8.00, same place

January 2016

The main business of the Assembly is the electionof up to 12 board members for the next 3 year
term (2016-2019). Current Board members, apartfrom the current president (Libby Robin who will
become ex officio Past President), may all stand for
re-election. The terms of office of the Secretary
and the Treasurer end in 2017. The ICEHO
constitution is arranged so that the leadershipgroup has staggered terms.
The Nominating Committee, chaired by
Cindy Ott, has already begun work. If you would
like to nominate yourself or someone else, pleasecontact Cindy: cott3@slu.edu before the end ofJanuary. The nomination should consist of astatement of willingness to serve, a biography, CV,details of the organisation you/they represent (thismust be a current ICEHO member) and a brief
manifesto of how you/they see themselves making
a contribution to ICEHO going forward.
The names of the candidates for election will be on
the website during February and please watch thewebsite for the agenda of the General Assembly.
We are most grateful to Cindy and her Committee,
Matthew Evenden, Bo Poulsen and Richard
Tucker, whose work will make the formalities ofthe meeting much simpler, and allow us more time
for discussion of future ICEHO initiatives.
The Site Selection Committee, chaired by Graeme
Wynn (Canada), supported by Stefania Gallini(Colombia), Lisa Mighetto (USA) and Bo Poulsen(Denmark), has also been working hard and will beannouncing the destination of the 2019 World
Congress by the middle of the year.
I want to pay tribute to Dolly Jørgensen for her
sterling work as foundation Secretary of ICEHO.
Dolly has decided to step down as Secretary after
the meeting in Seattle, because of the pressure ofher new job at the University of Luleå (andcontinuing pressure as current President of ESEH).
We are all very grateful for her cheerful efficiency
and wise council, and wish her well. The ICEHO
board will make an appointment to cover the
Secretaryship in 2016-2017.

New members continue to join ICEHO, and we
include reports of their activities in this bulletin. If
you hear of other environmental historyorganizations who haven’t yet joined, pleaseencourage them to do so. This way we diversify
membership and can sponsor and mentor
historians from new places to be part of ouractivities. We encourage societies with national orthematic focus – like the Environment and War
Network featured below - to join our internationalteam, along with university departments,
museums, publishers and other institutions that
undertake ‘environmental history’ or‘environmental humanities' like the new African
Network for the Environmental Humanities (seebelow). If your organization would likeinternational recognition for its work, you canwrite directly to me – or contact any of the Board
members (listed at the end of the bulletin). We
welcome news from new and regular members.
Deadline for contributions to the next bulletin is
31 March 2016 (or at the General Assembly thenext day).

Libby Robin FAHA (President)
Australian National University, Canberra

Gulf War (image courtesy Richard Tucker)

Environment and War Network
http://www.environmentandwar.com/

A growing network of research is now analyzing
war’s environmental consequences. War andmilitary operations have shaped societies andenvironments through history: both pre-state
violence and warfare between major civilizations
and population centers. It is important to place
the escalation of scale and intensity in theindustrial era in longer historical and comparative
perspective, including beyond Europe. Most of ourwork so far has been on the twentieth century (fordetails, see our website: Environmental Legacies of
War http://www.environmentandwar.com/),particularly the two world wars and the Cold War
era, including wartime and peacetime military
operations. In the major wars, both front lines andbehind the lines, extending to far-flung regions of
natural resources, industrial processes andtransportation nets that transformed post-conflict
environments and consumption patterns. One
emerging emphasis is on the complex roles ofcivilians as participants and victims, mostdramatically, mass refugee movements in war
zones. Distortions of their relation to the land andurban space are often the key to changes inmanaged ecosystems.

Battle of Kursk 1943

The immediate aftermath of mass conflict has tobe taken into account as well: the period of socialand economic dislocation, recovery,
reconstruction, and natural regeneration. Without
this we blur the crucial distinction between
immediate impacts and long-term changes. Thishas been dramatically true in the aftermath of bothworld wars. But those wars did not end
everywhere when armistices between major
powers were signed. After both 1918 and 1945
mass conflict continued in many places. We havebegun considering the so-called “interwar” years
between 1919 and 1937, when demobilization was
followed by remilitarization, as well as local wars inseveral places. And we’re turning attention now toregional wars, civil wars, insurgencies and counterinsurgency campaigns, especially after 1945 but
also in earlier times.

Korean War(1950-1953)(image Richard Tucker)

A fundamental thread of this is analysis of theenergy basis of military operations through history,
especially the era of fossil fuels. This is beginningto contribute to our understanding of the role ofthe military in climate change, including for recent
years the military’s efforts to mitigate carbon
emissions, the “greening” of the military. We arelearning to collaborate with military historians andgeographers, who have specialized in theenvironmental causes and settings of military
operations / planning, in contrast to our primaryemphasis on environmental impacts.

Second Chechnyan War 1999 (image Richard Tucker)

We welcome new members of our network.
Anyone can join, by sending your name,institution, email address, and a note of yourprimary focus of work, to Richard Tucker
rptucker@umich.edu. This is a way to publicize
your work to others in and field who share yourinterests, and to support other research andteaching efforts around the world.
Richard Tucker (Convenor)
rptucker@umich.edu

www.aneh-africa.org

The African Network of Environmental Humanities(ANEH) is a new multidisciplinary scholarly
association,
which
aims
at
promotingenvironmental humanities scholarship in Africa.
ANEH is composed of researchers in the humanities,
and others, who share a common passion to explore
and understand through the prism of thehumanities the nexus between human societies andthe environment. The Network, currently funded by
the Rachel Carson Centre for Environment andSociety (RCC), emerged to fill a lack ofenvironmental humanities scholarship in and about
Africa on the global stage. ANEH aims to narrow thegap by building and sustaining a community of
researchers dedicated to studying African societies
and their environments.
ANEH made its public debut recently at the firstinternational conference of the African Studies
Association for Africa (ASAA), held 13th-17th
October 2015 at the Institute of African Studies,
University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Reflecting the needfor an African Studies Association domiciled in
Africa, ASAA’s conference theme was ‘African
Studies in the Twenty-First Century: Past, Present,
and Future’. The event, which was well attended bydelegates from across Africa, had as its first Keynote
Speaker former Nigerian president, Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo.
Through the generous support of the RCC, The
ANEH hosted a panel at the conference entitled
Discovering
Environmental
Humanities:
Recovering the African in the Environment and theEnvironment in the African. Paper presenters
included Professor Ibrahim Bashir (Functionalist
Historian and former Vice-Chancellor, University ofJos), Professor Noah Attah (Department of History,
Joseph Ayo Babalola University), Dr Marklene
Chinatu Ugbogu (Department of History, Joseph
Ayo Babalola University), Dr Omokafe Alaba
Ugbogu (Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria) and
Ms Ifesinachi Okafor-Yarwood (PhD student, Kings
College, London), and Mr Ernest Prince Habib(Nigerian Defence Academy). The Panel was
moderated by Carson Fellow, Dr John Agbonifo. The
audience included students of the University of
Ibadan, and participants from across Africa.
Bashir presented a broad historical analysis of theorigins of various environmental problems in
Nigeria and the Lake Chad area and their interaction
with human societies. Okafor-Yarwood explored theinterrelation between environmental security andtoxic waste dumping in the Gulf of Guinea. Habib’s
paper focused on the environmental impact of theflagship of Nigeria’s industrialization ambition, theAjaokuta steel project. Marklene Ugbogu examinedthe dynamics of forestry management in Nigeria. On
his part, Attah looked at the land grab phenomenon
and how it impacts societies and environment.
Omokafe Ugbogu paper was concerned with theenvironmental consequences of deforestation.
Perhaps, given the breadth and depth of the
discussions participants expressed keen interest in
membership of ANEH, enthusiastically helping
themselves to the journals and other publishedmaterials donated to us by the RCC. Prior to thepanel, ANEH leaders interacted with and introduced
the network to leaders and laureates of the African
Humanities Programme, and both groups agreed to
explore opportunities for future collaboration.
During its post-event meeting, ANEH executive
committee met to consider the way forward for the
network. Members identified certain governmental
institutions and individuals that ANEH should
contact and initiate research collaboration with.
Also, it was decided that a Round-table expert
meeting shall be convened in collaboration with a
Nigerian university in March 2016. The meeting will
engage with the desiccation of the Lake Chad,flooding, and desertification. Towards popularizing
environmental humanities, ANEH will hold an
inaugural international conference in mid-2016.
For ANEH, galvanizing environmental humanities inAfrica assumes double importance against the
backdrop of climate change and efforts to develop
adaptation mechanisms. To that end, all hands must
be on deck, and ANEH needs support from all Africa
and beyond in order to achieve its goals.
John Agbonifo
UNIOSUN (Osun State University)
President, ANEH
News from KAJAK (Estonian Society ofEnvironmental History)

In September 2015 a special issue on environmental
history was published in the Estonian popular sciencemagazine Horisont. The special issue was put together
and partly financed by the Estonian Centre forEnvironmental History (KAJAK). Anthropocene in its
different meanings is the cover story of the magazine.
The issue opens by interviews with renowned
environmental historians from Asia, Australia, India,
Africa, Europe, Latin America and Northern America
where each respondent introduces the central
questions and challenges of environmental history intheir respective corner of the world. Other articles cover
climate history, environmental diseases, gardening
history, waste management and waterways, linking themain keywords in environmental history with theparticular Estonian examples and problems. The issue
concludes with an overview of the most importantcenters, journals, books series and museums engaged in
the development of environmental history. Thanks tothe positive feedback, the widespread magazine will add
columns on environmental history also in its further
numbers. Horisont is the major Estonian magazine on
popular science and it celebrates its 50th anniversary of
publishing next year.

Links in Estonian
http://www.tlu.ee/et/ajaloo-instituut/KAJAK/Uudised
http://www.loodusajakiri.ee/horisont-tervitab-sugistkeskkonnaajalooga/
http://www.loodusajakiri.ee/tutvustused/horisont5_20
15.pdfUlrike Plath (Director KAJAK)

CFP: 8th SOLCHA Symposium, Puebla Mexico
August 3-5, 2016
from Stefania Gallini
Dear allI am pleased to share the call for proposals to the *8th
Symposium of the Latin American and Caribbean
Society for Environmental History - SOLCHA*, to beheld in Puebla, México, on August 3 to 5, 2016. The
event is convened by SOLCHA in partnership with theBenemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, theFacultad de Estudios Superiores Acatlán, UNAM, and theMaster and Ph.D. programmes in History at the
Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas. Prof. Rosalva
Loreto chairs the Local Organizing Committee. You canfind the full call at
http://solcha.uniandes.edu.co/index/images/Convocato
rio8SimposioSolcha.pdf
Plenary sessions, panels, individual papers and posters
can be submitted tothe email of the Organizing Committee:*solcha2016@gmail.com<solcha2016@gmail.com>*
Deadlines depend on the proposal: *December 1,
2015:* Proposals for plenary sessions and panels. For
approved plenary sessions, a second call will be open up
to Feb. 15 to receive paper proposals.
*February 15, 2016*: Proposals for individual papers
and posters.

Further details can be found in the call or answered by
the LOC team at *solcha2016@gmail.com<solcha2016@gmail.com>* Although the currently
published call is in Spanish only, please do submit
your proposals in English too. SOLCHA is a welcoming
diverse community.
----------------------------Estimados/as todos/as,
me complace compartir la convocatoria al *VIII
Simposio de la Sociedad Latinoamericana y Caribeña
de Historia Ambiental - SOLCHA*, que tendrá lugar en
Puebla, México, del 3 al 5 de agosto de 2016. Este
evento es convocado por SOLCHA en colaboración con
la Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, laFacultad de Estudios Superiores Acatlán, UNAM, y la
Maestría y Doctorado en Historia en la Universidad
Autónoma de Zacatecas. La Prof.a Rosalva Loretopreside el Comité Organizador Local.
La convocatoria está publicada en este enlace:
http://solcha.uniandes.edu.co/index/images/Convocato
rio8SimposioSolcha.pdf
Propuestas para sesiones plenarias, paneles, ponencias
individuales y posters pueden ser enviadas al correo*solcha2016@gmail.com <solcha2016@gmail.com>* La
fecha límite para someter las propuestas depende de la
tipología de las mismas: *Diciembre 1, 2015:*
Propuestas para sesiones plenarias y paneles. Para lassesiones plenarias que quedaran aprobadas, se abrirá
una segunda convocatoria hasta el 15 de Febrero de2016 para someter propuestas de contribución a lassesiones.
*February 15, 2016*: Propuestas de ponencias
individuales y posters.

Unsettling Stories and Unstable Subjects
SAHS biennial conference
University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, 1-3 July 2015

The Southern African Historical Society (SAHS), a
member of ICEHO, held its 25th biennial conference in
Stellenbosch, South Africa, 1-3 July 2015 on the theme:
Unsettling Stories and Unstable Subjects. The SAHS
continues to thrive and sustain its regional character as
scholars (young and old) not only from South Africa but
also from Malawi, Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia,
Mozambique and Zimbabwe descended on thebreathtaking landscapes of Stellenbosch. In attendancewere also SAHS members and non-members from theUSA, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
All in all, about 250 papers on a range of topics thatreflected current trends in historical research were
presented. Although the SAHS is not just an
environmental history organization, over the years it has
dedicated space for environmental history at all its

biennial conferences. This recent conference included
two panels focused on the intersections between power
and nature and specifically examined the ‘nature of
power and ‘the power of nature’, crossings between
environmental history, science and politics and‘commodifying the environment’.
Water was another strong theme of theconference. Four panels followed this theme ‘Thirstingfor the truth: water histories and watering history’ over
the three days of the conference, including ‘water andsettler colonialism in Zimbabwe’, ‘supplying water toLesotho’s colonial districts’, and the ‘politics of transboundary water governance in Southern Africa’. The
conversations in these panels left attendees in no doubtthat water shapes and, at times, disrupts the flows ofhistory.
A significant highlight was the SAHS Vice-President’s
Post-graduate Student Best Essay Prize. This prize wasinitiated as part of stimulating the intellectual andprofessional growth of our graduate students whose
presence at these conferences has increased steadily
over the years supported by the SAHS’ policy of reduced
conference fees for students. Winner in 2015 was anenvironmental history paper by Philip Roth, a student at
both Boston University and the University of KwaZulu
Natal, entitled, ‘Sweetness and Fever? Sugar Plantation,
Aedes aegypti and Dengue Fever in Natal, South Africa,
1926-27’. This paper is under consideration for
publication in the SAHS’s eminent flagship journal, theSouth African Historical Journal.
Finally, at the end of the conference it was time for achange of leadership. Environmental historian,
Professor Sandra Swart of Stellenbosch University who
was at the helm of the SAHS for the past two years as its
President passed the baton to another environmental
historian, Professor Mucha Musemwa of the Universityof the Witwatersrand who will lead the society inactivities and plans that will culminate in the 26th
biennial conference at the University of the
Witwatersrand in Johannesburg in mid-2017.
Readers of the ICEHO newsletter may want to note that theimmediate past President of ICEHO, Professor Jane Carruthers,
is also a past President of the Southern African Historical
Society.

Professor
Mucha
Musemwa(SAHS
President)

University of the
Witwatersrand(Pictured herewith outgoing
SAHS President
Sandra Swart(right)Planted Forests
9 National Conference, Mt Gambier Oct. 2015th

The Australian Forest History Society (AFHS) held
its 9th National Conference in October at Mount
Gambier in South Australia. Previous conferences
have been held since 1988 in Canberra, the otherstates and in New Zealand, but this was the first inSouth Australia. The theme of ‘Planted Forests’
was particularly appropriate because, starting in
the 1880s South Australia was the first state toestablish extensive plantations. Now they, withothers in neighbouring Victoria, make up the‘Green Triangle’ region supporting an integrated
forest products industry. Moreover, more wood is
now being produced from Australian plantations,than from the indigenous forests.

Pictorial history featured in the conference and in
the associated opening of the Mount Gambier City
Library’s exhibition of the digitised version of theirforestry collection. John Dargavel presented thelibrary with a collection of 38 glass lantern slides
that had been used in training students at theAustralian Forestry School, started in 1926. He hadfound boxes of them during the refurbishment of
the Forestry building at the Australian National
University that had taken over the education offoresters in 1965. The one illustrated (left) is
believed to be the only surviving image ofFrederick Melville (1863–1928), the first Australianborn forester to be trained through the cadet
system in Australia.

AFHS conference field tour to Mimosa Farm‘King Tree’, red gum, Eucalyptus rostrata, Wirrabara Forest Reserve,
South Australia, with Frederick Melville, c. 1915.

It was a timely theme because Australian forest
history had previously paid most attention to theindigenous eucalypt and tropical forests with theirrich biodiversity.
Seventeen papers covered aspects of Australianand New Zealand plantation history, some aspectsof the indigenous forests. A paper on the Scottish
origins of planted forests was especially relevant as
the state’s first Conservator, John Ednie Brown,
was part of the famous family of Scots foresters.

Field excursions are an integral element of any
forest history conference. An in-conference field
trip visit to Mimosa Tree Farm, hosted by its
enthusiastic and dedicated owner Peter Feast, wasfollowed a visit to the South Australia’s first Forest
Reserve, established in 1877 at Leg of Mutton Lake.
A post-conference tour included the site of asalvage spot mill in the forest that has grown into amodern sawmill, the delightful, locally-managed
Nangwarry Forestry and Logging Museum, theWorld Heritage listed Naracoorte Caves, a native
forest reserve where the advantages andcontroversies of thinning to allow native tress togrow, spread and form tree-hollows for arboreal
species.
No forest tour through a famous wine region canbe conducted without visiting a vineyard andHollicks winery was properly enjoyed at lunchtime.
John Dargavel and Sue Feary
Past president and President AFHSLibrary
Changes at
the Forest
History
Societyteaching of forest, conservation, or environmental
history. Cheryl has done both with the highest
degree of professionalism at all times, helping
make the Forest History Society the respected
institution it is today.
Cheryl leaves the library and archives in good
hands. Eben Lehman succeeds her as Director of
Library and Archives. He has served as FHS
Archivist since 2007. In that capacity, he works
with the digitization and cataloguing of theSociety's photograph collection, provides photoreference assistance, manages the FHS researchdatabases, and produces EAD finding aids forarchival collections. He also coedits and coauthors
the blog "Peeling Back the Bark," and coordinates
social media communications and outreach. In
addition to his current duties, he will now be
responsible for the oversight, management, andlong-range planning of both the library andarchives.

Image: Don’t mess with Cheryl Oakes! (courtesy FHS)

After 25 years of responding to countless queries
and helping untold numbers of researchers, FHS
Librarian Cheryl Oakes has done the unthinkable
and retired. She leaves behind a legacy that will be
hard to duplicate, and her impact on the field of
forest history is immeasurable, save for counting
the scores of books on the FHS library shelves inwhich authors gave a hearty "thank you" to Cherylfor her help either remotely or while conducting
research in the FHS archives.

At her retirement party, Cheryl received two items:
a photo scrapbook that included letters of praiseand congratulations from many of the scholars she
has aided, and the honorific of FHS Fellow. Thisaward is bestowed on persons who have provided
many years of outstanding leadership and service
to the Society or many years of outstanding
sustained contributions to the research, writing, orJason Howard (pictured here), is the newest
member of the FHS staff. Jason will serve as FHS
Librarian, and is responsible for managing thelibrary and providing reference assistance forusers. Previously Jason served as Head ofReference and Instructional Services at Saint
Augustine's University in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Jason holds a Master of Library Science degreefrom North Carolina Central University and abachelor's degree in history from Saint Augustine's
University. He brings a passion for reference
services as well as the use of new technologies inlibraries. Please direct any questions or inquiries
to Jason at jason.howard@foresthistory.org orcall him directly at 919-660-0543. He looks
forward to answering your reference queries andmeeting FHS members.
Steven Anderson, Ph.D, CF, CAE
President & CEO FOREST HISTORY

International Review of Environmental History(online free: http://press.anu.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/whole.pdf)

Environment and History
Vol 21. No 4 Nov 2015

Courtney A. Rayes, James
Beattie and Ian C. Duggan‘Boring through History’
Jana Sprenger ‘An Ocean of
Locusts’
Arnab Dey ‘Bugs in the
Garden’Wesley Mwatwara andSandra Swart ‘It’s no use
advising us!’Michael Zeheter ‘Order inthe Lake’
Plus BOOK REVIEWS

Environmental History

Volume 21
Issue 1
Jan 2016

If you have contributions for the next bulletin,
please send them to me
libby.robin@anu.edu.au
Or talk to any of our Board members about it:
Alan MacEachern amaceach@uwo.ca
James Beattie jbeattie@waikato.ac.nz
John McNeill mcneillj@georgetown.edu
José Padua jpadua@terra.com.br
Lise Sedrez lsedrez@gmail.com
Mauro Agnoletti mauro.agnoletti@unifi.it
Ranjan Chakrabarti ranjan.jadavpur@gmail.com
Shen Hou houshen@ruc.edu.cn

Do you want to join ICEHO?
From as little as $US100/year.
Information online:
http://www.iceho.org/wpcontent/uploads/2013/01/ICEHOMembership-Application.pdf
Or contact Valerie Bass

Valerie.Bass@foresthistory.org