April General Meeting: Mangroves of the Solomon Islands

In April, the IWA invites you to travel to the South Pacific with us and enter a world of mysterious mangrove forests and feminine power over the resources within them.

We have asked Heide K. Bruckner (University of Graz) to share the food, climate, and feminist dimensions of her work in the Solomon Islands. 

Mangrove forests are found in tropical swamp regions where the land and sea meet, areas home to some of the most biologically complex ecosystems on Earth. Because these plants can efficiently absorb and store carbon from the atmosphere, they have gained fame as “climate superheroes”. But mangroves have different meanings for local communities that depend on them for food and firewood. These forests are highly gendered spaces, key to indigenous food sovereignty and cultural identity. They are also threatened by logging and resource exploitation.

Based on her pioneering research in the Solomon Islands, South Pacific, Dr. Bruckner shows that more locally based and inclusive feminist approaches to mangroves (and their management) are needed to meet entangled food and climate justice goals. In her talk, she will present insights from her ongoing work with gender, mangroves, and food systems, reflecting on the challenges and opportunities of transnational feminism and environmental justice.

Please sign up to join this event by sending us an e-mail.