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Pauline von Hellermann Sep 13, 2023

#ClimateDiary My mother still sends me newspaper cutouts (❤️). Just opened this after returning from a long work trip this morning (perhaps more on this later):

“Can you even fly at all any more? “

i’ve intensely struggled with too much flying these last few weeks; to be honest it’s really thrown me, i feel i can’t say anything to anyone anymore. Not sure whether it will help but I look forward to reading this; and it’s so nice that my mother is trying to engage.

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Pauline von Hellermann

#ClimateDiary 2/n OK, so I flew to #Tanzania to attend a 5 day workshop on #IndigenousKnowledge (IEK) and #Ethnobotany at the University of #Dodoma. I thought a lot about going (because of flying) but also felt it’s important to forge new networks in the #TapestryOfAlternatives. I gave a talk about the need for IEK at this moment of #ClimateCrisis and #transition, and had conversations about all this throughout. There were brilliant young (and older) scholars from Tanzania, Kenya, DRC, Ethiopia

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Pauline von Hellermann Sep 14, 2023

3/n , DRC, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The one from #Zimbabwe ionce got arrested for taking part in a protest outside a cement factory; later he was sent to China for 6 months on an exchange programme, advised to stop activism and learn about “real climate action”, #GreenHydrogen etc.

He and all others gave great papers about botanical knowledge in so many different societies in Africa, I learned so much. We became a great team of ambassadors for #indigenousKnowledge!

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Pauline von Hellermann Sep 14, 2023

4/n but i also took it as an opportunity to return to #Chome, in the #PareMountains, where I had not been since 2009, when I did research on landscape change and #TreeSymbolism there. I brought the papers I wrote (one attached here) and it was definitely a good thing to return. My friends there were very happy to see me and I them, after all these years, and it was so good to be back.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26393259

Tree Symbolism and Conservation in the South Pare Mountains, Tanzania on JSTOR

Pauline von Hellermann, Tree Symbolism and Conservation in the South Pare Mountains, Tanzania, Conservation & Society, Vol. 14, No. 4 (2016), pp. 368-379

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Pauline von Hellermann Sep 14, 2023

5/n But it was also heartbreaking in many ways. Remote as the South Pare mountains are, they too are experiencing #ClimateChange, just like everyone else. These last two years rains failed; a plot Zawadi rented produced nothing, his banana trees are now very dry and he, his family and many others really struggled for food this year, as the maize haevest was so poor, and overall all the forests and trees are very dry now

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Pauline von Hellermann Sep 14, 2023

6/6 and when it did finally rain, like everywhere else, far too much water came at once and crrwated these kinds of new ravines. Also, it is constantly cloudy now - a new weather phenomenon here too in itself (had to think of you @CiaraNi). Now everyone is hoping gor good steady rains this year. Nobody prays in the #rainmaking sacred grove anymore these days, but it feels like you want to do just that. #Tanzania #ClimateDiary

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Ian Hunt Sep 14, 2023

@pvonhellermannn 💚 this thread. Relationships with others and research made possible by air travel are real and precious. Of course we should take this conversation elsewhere, beyond those of us who broadly agree and are working on how and what to change (and you do, I know). In the meantime, I am happy to read about your travels in #Tanzania and your conversations.

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Pauline von Hellermann Sep 15, 2023

@ianhunt thank you so much, Ian, what a kind and really lovely message. Yes, they are real relationships - when insaw Zawadi and his wife Angelica again after all these years it felt just like seeing an aunt and uncle (maybe because they looked after me so much when inwas there), and we all agreed that we are family

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