Ethnobotany Today: Renewal, Responsibility and the Future of Plant Knowledge

Ethnobotany, ethnomycology and the psychedelic sciences sit at a fascinating crossroads. These fields explore the deep relationships between people, plants and fungi. Relationships that carry culture, healing, ecology and identity through time. In a world facing an accelerating ecological crisis, these relationships are not only meaningful, they are essential. The survival of diverse ecosystems, and by extension the survival of our own species, depends on how well we understand, protect and work with the living world.

This panel invites the community into a generous and forward-looking conversation. We will explore how ethnobotany is practised and imagined today, why this matters now more than ever, and how we can contribute to conservation, ecological responsibility, cultural continuity and the preservation of knowledge worlds.. We will also acknowledge the complexity of the field’s history, including moments of extraction, appropriation and imbalance. The rapid growth of psychedelic therapy, wellness industries and commercial models has also created challenges for those who value older plant-centred relationships.

At the same time, many critics remind us that ethnobotany is far broader than psychoactive plants. It encompasses vast botanical knowledge, ecological understanding and cultural practices that are urgently needed in a time of climate stress and biodiversity loss. Rather than seeing these tensions as limitations, we see them as an opportunity for renewal.

This panel is an invitation to reimagine ethnobotany as a vibrant and ethically grounded field, capable of supporting community wellbeing, protecting biodiversity and strengthening our collective response to the ecological challenges of our time.

Facilitated by Alex Gearin

Panel Guests: Alison Pouliot, Kirt Mallie, Caine Barlow, Torsten Wiedemann, David Nickels