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Transforming the study of plants and people: A reflection on 35 years of The New York Botanical Garden Institute of Economic Botany

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Abstract

The creation of the NYBG Institute of Economic Botany (IEB) was intended to help revitalize the field of economic botany and ethnobotany, through the work of a multidisciplinary staff who would study important issues of great human concern. Early staff appointments included anthropologists and ecologists, who utilized perspectives from the social and natural sciences that, when combined with NYBG staff trained in systematic botany, economic botany and ethnobotany, have been effective in changing research approaches to the study of the relationships between plants, people and culture. IEB staff activities include research projects, teaching in graduate and undergraduate programs, mentoring students, publishing the results of scientific research and outreach to the public as well as communities in areas where its programs operate. Thirty-five years after the creation of the IEB, the fields of economic botany and ethnobotany have greater preeminence as scientific disciplines and classes in these topics have grown from only a handful at universities in the 1980s to over 70 today. Several dozen graduates of the IEB’s Ph.D. programs now teach or carry out research at many major institutions around the world, as well as in the private sector; it is this next generation who will continue and expand studies of this field.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Economic Botany, New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Blvd., Bronx, NY, 10458-5126, USA

    Michael J. Balick

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  1. Michael J. Balick
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Correspondence to Michael J. Balick.

Appendix. Books and manuals published by IEB staff.

Appendix. Books and manuals published by IEB staff.

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Balick, M. J. 1986. Systematics and economic botany of the Oenocarpus – Jessenia (Palmae) Complex. Advances in Economic Botany 3: 1–140.

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Pinheiro, C. U. B. & M. J. Balick (eds.). 1987. Brazilian Palms. Notes on their uses and vernacular names, compiled and translated from Pio Corrêa’s “Dicionário das Plantas Uteis do Brasil e das Exóticas Cultivadas,” with Updated Nomenclature and Added Illustrations. Contributions from The New York Botanical Garden 17: 1–50.

Balick, M. J. 1988. Jessenia and Oenocarpus: Neotropical Oil Palms worthy of domestication. FAO Plant Production and Protection Paper #88. Food & Agriculture Organization, Rome.

Balick, M. J. (ed.) 1988. The Palm—Tree of Life: Biology, utilization and conservation. Advances in Economic Botany 6: 1–282.

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Balick, M. J. & H. T. Beck. 1989. Useful Palms of the world: A synoptic bibliography. Columbia University Press, New York.

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Prance, G. T. & A. Prance. 1993. Bark: The formation, characteristics and uses of bark around the world. Timber Press, Oregon.

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Peters, C. M. 1994. Sustainable harvest of non-timber plant resources in Tropical Moist Forests: An ecological primer. Biodiversity Support Program, Washington, D.C.

Balick, M. J., E. Elisabetsky & S. Laird. 1995. Medicinal resources of the tropical forest: Biodiversity and its importance to human health. Columbia University Press, New York.

Balick, M. J. & P. A. Cox. 1996. Plants, people, and culture: The science of ethnobotany. W. H. Freeman, Scientific American Library, New York.

Padoch, C. & N. L. Peluso (eds.).1996. Borneo in transition: People, forests, conservation, and development. Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur.

Peters, C. M. & P. Kimman. 1996. Pedoman Inventarisasi dan Studi Penghasilan Sumber Daya Alam Hutan. Proyek Pengembangan Hutan Kemasyarakatan, GTZ.

Peters, C. M. 1996. The ecology and management of non-timber tropical forest resources (World Bank Technical Paper). The World Bank, Washington.

Sheldon, J. W., M. J. Balick & S. A. Laird. 1997. Medicinal plants: Can utilization and conservation coexist? Advances in Economic Botany 12: 1–104.

Arvigo, R. & M. J. Balick. 1998. Rainforest remedies: One hundred healing herbs of Belize (2nd ed.). Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin.

Padoch, C., J. M. Ayres, M. Pinedo-Vasquez & A. Henderson (eds.). 1999. Varzea: Diversity, development, and conservation of Amazonia’s whitewater floodplain. Advances in Economic Botany 13: 1–407.

Balick, M. J., M. H. Nee & D. A. Atha. 2000. Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Belize, with common names and uses. Memoirs of The New York Botanical Garden 85: 1–246.

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Balick, M. J. 2009. Ethnobotany of Pohnpei: Plants, people and island culture. University of Hawaii Press and The New York Botanical Garden, Honolulu.

Mertz, O., C. Padoch, J. Fox, R. Cramb, S. Leisz, N. T. Lam & T. D. Vien (eds.). 2009. Swidden cultivation in Southeast Asia. Human Ecology (Special Issue) 37: 259–388.

Ocampo, R., M. J. Balick, R. Goldstein & K. Herrera. 2009. Plants of semillas sagradas: An ethnomedicinal garden in Costa Rica. Finca Luna Nueva, San Jose, Costa Rica.

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Lee, R., N. Shere, M. J. Balick, F. Sohl, A. S. Roberts, K. Herrera, S. Dahmer, M. Lieskovsky, A. Dores, W. Raynor, P. Raynor, E. Albert, M. Hunt, C. Trauernicht, L. Offringa, I. Adam & W. Law. 2010. Pohnpei primary health care manual: Health care in Pohnpei, Micronesia, traditional uses of plants for health and healing. The New York Botanical Garden, The Nature Conservancy, Continuum Center for Health and Healing & The Conservation Society of Pohnpei, Charleston, South Carolina.

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Dahmer, S., M. J. Balick, A. Hillmann Kitalong, C. Kitalong, K. Herrera, W. Law, R. Lee, V.-R. Tadao, F. Rehurer, S. Hanser, K. Soaladaob, G. Ngirchobong, M. Besbes, F. Wasisang, D. Kulakowski & I. Adam. 2012. Palau primary health care manual: Health care in Palau, combining conventional treatments and traditional uses of plants for health and healing. The New York Botanical Garden, Ministry of Health Republic of Palau, The Continuum Center for Health and Healing & Belau National Museum, Charleston, South Carolina.

Balée, W. L. 2013. Cultural forests of the Amazon: A historical ecology of people and their landscapes. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

Hecht, S. B., K. Morrison & C. Padoch (eds.). 2013. The social lives of forests. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Balick, M. J. 2014. 21st Century herbal: A practical guide for healthy living using nature’s most powerful plants. Rodale Press, Emmaus, PA.

Peters, C. M. & A. Henderson. 2014. Systematics, ecology, and management of Rattans in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam: The biological bases of sustainable use. WWF-Greater Mekong and The New York Botanical Garden, New York.

Balick, M. J. 2015. Messages from the Gods: A guide to the useful plants of Belize. Oxford University Press and The New York Botanical Garden, New York.

Purata, V., E. Silvia, P. G. Fernandez & C. M. Peters. 2016. Manual para el monitoreo comunitario del crecimento de árboles. Alianza Mexicana–REDD & USAID, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico.

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Balick, M.J. Transforming the study of plants and people: A reflection on 35 years of The New York Botanical Garden Institute of Economic Botany. Brittonia 68, 278–289 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12228-016-9419-3

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