Navigating Climate Futures through Black Agrarianism and Inclusive Forest Management

Session Submission Type: Complete Panel

Abstract

Focusing on the roles, cultural experiences, and political ideologies of Black landowners and stewards, we examine their envisioned futurities amidst climate change and anti-Black sentiments. We address the hidden narratives of African Americans’ relationship with forestry, elucidating their historical exclusion and resilience and their crucial ecological knowledge. Rectifying distorted perceptions of Black landowners, we shed light on how resilient Black farmers and their communities, despite shrinking farmland ownership, systemic inequalities, and escalating financial extractivism, strive to retain their lands. Our panel will thus center the urgent need to integrate the traditional sustainability practices of Black agrarianism and Black ecological knowledge into our climate narratives and forest management strategies. We argue for a future that fully recognizes and embraces these narratives to navigate the challenges of climate change equitably. In doing so, we propose an inclusive narrative that recognizes and amplifies these resilient and transformative histories as crucial to understanding and addressing our shared climatic futures.

Sub Unit

• ASEH Annual Conference

Individual Presentations

• Navigating Climate Futures through Black Agrarianism and Inclusive Forest Management - Elsa Calderon, UCSC; Hannah Jo King, University of Minnesota- Twin Cities; Jasmine Kiara Brown, Michigan State University; Alexandria Nicole Casteel, Dartmouth College

• Environmental cultures - Alexandria Nicole Casteel, Dartmouth College