Working in the Garden
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Leaders in Biodiversity Conservation, Montréal 23-25 October 2014 David Strauch Roxanne M. Adams Department of Geography Buildings and Grounds Management University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa <[email protected]> 2525 Maile Way, Honolulu, HI 96822 808.956.3611 Working in the Garden: Managing a postcolonial landscape in the academic background Rock and Plants: The Vision of the Campus as a Botanical Garden Joseph F. Rock (1884–1962) “Pohaku” 1908: Botanical collector, Hawai‘i Territorial Division of Forestry 1911: Botanist at College of Hawai‘i, in charge of the herbarium 1919: Professor of systematic botany 1955–1957: Botanized in Hawai‘i 1962: Awarded honorary PhD, while professor of Oriental studies http://huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu/hibd/Departments/Archives/Archives-HR/Rock.shtml http://huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu/hibd/Departments/Archives/Archives-HR/Rock.shtml Rock planting H. giffardianus, 1 September 1940 Photo: L. W. Bryan; HI Archives portrait no. 28 A Century’s Assemblage of Plants King Prajadhipok of Siam planted Botanists and horticulturalists added Chaulmoogra (Hydnocarpus plants collected on their work in the anthelmintica) in honor of Alice Ball Pacific and beyond; the golden variety of for her work on Hansenʻs Disease Delonix regia shown in the background using this this tree. was orinally collected at the Papeari Botanical Garden on Tahiti in 1975, by Horace Clay, whose name it now bears. Visiting scholars who came to give lectures at UH, like Carl Sandberg, often planted a tree while they were here. Arrival of plants in Hawai‘i 1 billion BP 1 million BP 1 KYA 1788 1960 today 1010 109 108 107 106 105 104 103 102 10 1 Native plants Cultural Heritage plants Cosmopolitan plants Native plants <—(x~10k) Cultural Heritage plants Cosmopolitan plants 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 Native Species of the Hawaiian Islands by wind, air flotation ocean drift (rafting) ocean drift wing, birds: sticky fruit/seeds birds: barbs/bristles birds: mud on feet & wave birds: internal Evolution of endemic species Difficulty of reaching the islands + Highly diversified habitats —> High percentages of endemic taxa Native Hawaiian Plant Species Indigenous 106 11% Endemic 851 89% Total 957 Species evolving in the absence of browsers and predators tended to lose natural defenses. Māmaki (Pipturus alba), a relative of nettles — with no sting! Transported Landscapes Hawaiian settlement brings about 25 plants and 5 vertebrate animals Terrestrial mammals new to islands! — immediate impact on ecology Landscapes restructured in places • Polynesian arboriculture • Cultivation of native grasses • Increase in wetlands http://herbkanehawaii.com/image-catalog/people-places/kaanapali-in-ancient-times-p27/ http://herbkanehawaii.com/image-catalog/people-places/kaanapali-in-ancient-times-p27/ Herb Kāne, Ka‘anapali in Ancient Times Agroecology of pre-cosmopolitan Hawai‘i Flows of energy change within the system Energy remains a cycle Production of space: Landscape is relational Schools Kamehameha poster, Ahupua‘a http://deepnatureconnection.com/2012/01/08/ahupuaa-at-limahuli-botanical-garden/ Hawaiian Introduced “Canoe Plants” Herbs/Shrubs Trees ʻape" Alocasia macrorrhiza Cocos nucifera niu / coconut ʻohe / bamboo" Bambusa vulgaris Musa spp. maiʻa / banana ʻohe / bamboo" Schizostachyum glaucifolium Pandanus tectorius hala kalo / taro Colocasia esculenta kī / ti Cordyline fruticosa Aleurites moluccana kukui ʻolena / turmeric" Curcuma domestica Artocarpus altilis ʻulu / breadfruit" uhi Dioscorea alata Broussonetia papyrifera wauke ko or sugarcane Saccharum officinarum Calophyllum inophyllum kamani pia Tacca leontopetaloides Cordia subcordata kou ʻawapuhi" Zingiber zerumbet Hibiscus tiliaceus hau ʻuala / sweetpotato" Ipomoea batatas Morinda citrifolia noni ipu Lageneria siceraria Syzygium malaccense ʻōhiʻa ʻai" ‘awa Piper methysticum Thespesia populnea milo About half of the canoe plants are trees (not counting bamboo) Colonial Misunderstanding of Tropical Trees Polynesian arboriculture was often invisible to early European explorers, who saw mixed treescapes as “natural” The Terrestrial Paradise The Savage Wilds Understanding the Temperate Context Trees as ecological energy banks High latitudes characterized by seasonal energy differentials — it gets cold! Trees store energy, make it available in winter • build ecological capital in living wood • produce “interest” in fruits, nuts, & deadwood • used by people for food, shelter & fuel http://www.mnforsustain.org/energy_ecology_economics_odum_ht_1973.htm Howard T. Odum (1974) Energy, Ecology, & Economics & Ecology, Energy, Odum (1974) T. Howard European Expansion and the Liquidation of Ecological Capital http://www.online-literature.com/keats/3816/ John MacWhirter (1905) On the Edge of Sherwood Forest Forest Sherwood Edge of On the (1905) MacWhirter John And if Robin should be cast Sudden from his turfed grave, And if Marian should have Shipbuilding mines arboreal energy Once again her forest days, http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Robin_Hood_Major_Oak.jpg She would weep, and he would craze: deforestation erodes rural livlihoods, He would swear, for all his oaks, drives peasants to become sailors Fall'n beneath the dockyard strokes, (called England’s “heart of oak”) Have rotted on the briny seas; She would weep that her wild bees Sang not to her — strange! that honey Process creates ecological debt... http://www.fromoldbooks.org/Cassell-TheBritishIsles/pages/v1s1-204-On-the-Edge-of-Sherwood-Forest/ Can't be got without hard money! to be paid by colonial appropriation John Keats (1818) Robin Hood: to a Friend Ships reproduce economic/ecological relationships (detail) Production of space: Landscape is extractive Resolution and Adventure with fishing craft in Matavai Bay in Matavai craft with fishing Adventure Resolution and https://sites.google.com/site/laurenbarina/thetraders https://sites.google.com/site/laurenbarina/thetraders Injection of concentrated energy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hodges,_Resolution_and_Adventure_in_Matavai_Bay.jpg changes local structures of power WilliamHodges (1776) puts new elites in debt... ...paid by liquidating forests Energy now leaves the system as it will in sugarcane, etc. Impacts of Cosmopolitan Macrofauna Devastate native plants & landscapes Cows, goats, sheep, deer turned loose to graze (mining ecological capital!) Leads to reforestation efforts, starting in Mānoa with the HSPA, connected to College of Hawai‘i noa Valley 1890s, courtesy Bishop Museum Bishop Museum courtesy 1890s, Valley noa ā M http://www.alohafrom808.com/2011/08/manoa-valley-step-falls-july-31-2011/ Impacts of Cosmopolitan Microfauna Erosion of Native Ecologies Diseases devastate native birds in tandem with mosquitoes, pigs, & chickens — also imperilling co-evolved plants Diseases devastate native Hawaiians • Horrible population collapse • Erodes social system which maintains landscape • Shifts land tenure to extractive ecologies http://www.nwf.org/news-and-magazines/national-wildlife/birds/archives/2012/hawaiian-birds.aspx Impacts of Cosmopolitan Settlement Division of Landscapes Landscapes of production “Rationalized” with reduced biodiversity Landscapes of consumption Marked out of production by big trees & lawns made of surplus capital from sugar & pineapple Both landscapes alienate labor i.e. are no longer made for the people they’re made by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liliuokalani_Park_and_Gardens http://hawaii-agriculture.com/hawaiis-last-sugar-plantation-to-be-biofuel-lab-businessweek/ Impacts of Cosmopolitan Settlement Landscape Values Ordered by visual aesthetic The “landscape subject” is the viewer possessing through penetrative gaze Consistent with grazing http://www.kualoa.com/locations/ http://www.kualoa.com/locations/ Social Inheritance of Cosmopolitan Settlement Consequences for Landscape Policymakers minimize resources available (budget) Treat maintenance of landscape as unskilled, i.e. No horticultural background for groundskeepers Workers resist perceived exploitation Challenges for Conservation Sensitive plants require more care than we are budgeted to give them The “Big Trees and Lawn” campus paradigm consistent with the estate aesthetic The fetishization of natives use of natives as mere decoration (“anti-conquest” ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_University Mary Louise Pratt, Imperial Eyes. Values associated with plant groups Plants Landscape Ethic Native plants biocentric moral Cultural Heritage plants relational political Cosmopolitan plants aesthetic universalist Conservation of Native Species Pokulakalaka (Munroidendron racemosum) http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/carr/munroidendron.htm http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/carr/munroidendron.htm Conservation of Native Species Maintaining Genetic Diversity of Endemic Plants Conservation of Cultural Heritage Species Maintaining Hawaiian Agrobiodiversity Kalo (Colocasia esculenta) High diversity of indigenous cultivars variable leaves, stems, corms, habits as many as 368-482 c. 1900 http://kahuakukui2014.blogspot.com/2013/07/day-2_23.html only 65-73 are still extant About 60 are maintained at UH at Ka Papa Lo‘i o Kānewai (a traditional cultural garden) Kawika Winter (2012) Kalo [Hawaiian Taro, Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott] Varieties: An assessment of nomenclatural synonymy and biodiversity. Ethnobotany Research & Applications 10:423-447 <www.ethnobotanyjournal.org/vol10/i1547-3465-10-423.pdf> Conservation of Cosmopolitan Species Maintaining Genetic Diversity of Imperilled Plants