The Ethnobiological project

A continuation of Carl Linnaeus's work

The Ethnobiological project was initiated by the Swedish Biodiversity Centre in 1997 togheter with a number of other organizations to promote the interest in the conservation of biodiversity and traditional knowledge. 2006 the Ethnobiological project was integreated with the work of Naptek.The main purpose of the project was to create a three volume encyclopaedia in Swedish Etnobiology, giving a popular introduction to the historical, present, and possibly also some of the future use of our biodiversity. The third volume of Etnobiologi i Sverige vol. I-III was completetd in 2007.

In addition to the three volume encyclopaedia, the project has resulted in fifteen reports, six national symposia and two volumes of a planned three volume encyclopaedia describing traditional use of biodiversity in Sweden. When the third volume was released in December 2007 we had an encyclopaedia, covering
1 500 pages giving a popular introduction to the historical, present, and possibly also some of the future use of our biodiversity. The project has also resulted in Swedish university courses in ethnobiology and thus increased interest in the conservation of biological diversity as well as documentation of traditional knowledge.