The Changing Science and Ecology of Forests in Australia, India, and South Africa 1850-1950

Transplanted eucalyptus trees at the Pietermaritzburg Botanic Garden. Image: Brett Bennett

This project, funded by the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the American Council of Learned Societies, investigates how imperial institutions and networks across the Indian Ocean region from the mid nineteenth until the mid twentieth centuries facilitated the spread of flora and the creation and diffusion of local forms of scientific knowledge relating to trees. This exchange of plants and knowledge, encouraged by a variety of colonial lobbies and interests, forever changed the ecology of forests and land in Australia, India, and South Africa. Today Australian trees thrive in South Africa and India, whereas scientific and management techniques from India and South Africa influenced the development of Australian policies. By tracing the interconnected scientific and botanic networks, this project seeks to understand not only how new ecologies arose, but whether similar scientific techniques and structures that facilitated the movement of plants can help to stop or mitigate their spread.

Researcher: Brett Bennett