Darrell A. Posey - Legacy

Legacy

Posey was a full researcher ("Pesquisador Titular") for the Brazilian National Council for Science and Technology at the Goeldi Museum, Belém, Brazil. He was Director of the Programme for Traditional Resource Rights of the Oxford Centre for the Environment, Ethics and Society and a Fellow of Linacre College, at the University of Oxford. He was Founding President of the International Society for Ethnobiology and was President of the Global Coalition for Bio-Cultural Diversity, under whose auspices he founded the Working Group on Traditional Resource Rights which he coordinated. He was the first recipient of the Sierra Club's "Chico Mendes Award for Outstanding Bravery in Defense of the Environment", and in 1993 he received the United Nations Global 500 Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Service to the Environment."

He had few formal students in Brazil or elsewhere, but his impact as a teacher is remembered by many who later became ethnobiologists. He presented many talks in Brazil and other countries, and his work was featured in several films and videos.

The International Society of Ethnobiology (ISEB) created the "Darrel Posey Fellowship" in order to "promote understanding of peoples' complex and dynamic relationship with their environment, and supports indigenous peoples and local communities working to sustainably manage, and security rights to, their environments and resources. The Darrell Posey fellowship for ethnoecology and traditional resource rights was launched in 2004 with a grant from the Christensen Fund, and is administrated by the International Society of Ethnobiology, of which Darrell Posey was a founder.".

The June 2008 11th International Congress of Ethnobiology in Cusco, Peru, will explicitly explore the Darrell A. Posey legacy in a session titled "Ethnobiology and Traditional Resource Rights: Darrell Posey's Legacy." This session will celebrate Darrell Posey's many contributions and influences in the field of ethnobiology over the past several decades, both direct and indirect.

When Western scientists and other academics listen respectfully and learn at the feet of indigenous and traditional leaders, Posey's legacy will become reality.