Using a variety of theoretical rubrics, recent work in ecological and environmental anthropology has revealed that human–environment interactions within the context of global capitalism are complex and have increasingly unjust and unsustainable outcomes. As globalization proceeds and associated socio‐environmental problems become clear, it is important that ecological and environmental anthropologists use empirical research to develop both theoretical and practical approaches to addressing the sustainability challenge. We suggest that an anthropological engagement with permaculture represents an especially timely opportunity for anthropologists to move toward sustainability in ways that complement and enable us to extend our traditional areas of theoretical and practical expertise. Permaculture is a development strategy that has a history of grassroots application, but it has been largely ignored by mainstream development practitioners and anthropologists alike. We argue that permaculture deserves a closer look. In this article, we trace the historical development of permaculture, provide examples of permaculture in practice in an ecovillage context, identify compatible areas of research within environmental anthropology, and make suggestions for engagement.

Professor Robert E. Rhoades worked for four decades to construct a comparative, international anthropology of mountain agrobiodiversity. This paper presents research in the tradition of Rhoades's applied agrobiodiversity studies. Baseline landrace inventories were compiled from Appalachia and the Ozark Highlands, United States, based on in-depth ethnoecological research. Results illustrate that southern/central Appalachia is the most diverse foodshed at the varietal level in the United States, Canada, and northern Mexico studied to date. Examples of how this research has contributed to several in situ agrobiodiversity conservation projects are provided. [agricultural anthropology, agrobiodiversity, Appalachia, Cherokee, in situ conservation, mountains, Ozarks, Robert Rhoades]James Veteto is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of North Texas where he directs the laboratory of environmental anthropology and the southern seed legacy. James has worked with local and indigenous communities in southern Appalachia, the Ozarks, and the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains of northwestern Mexico, with a focus on comparative agrobiodiversity inventories, farmer decision making, and conservation strategies in mountain ecosystems.

Southern Appalachia is unique among agroecological regions of the American South because of the diverse environmental conditions caused by its mountain ecology, the geographic and commercial isolation of the region, and the relative cultural autonomy of the people that live there. Those three criteria, combined with a rich agricultural history and the continuance of the homegardening tradition, make southern Appalachia an area of relatively high crop biodiversity in America. This study investigated the history and survival of traditional heirloom vegetable crops in western North Carolina and documented 134 heirloom varieties that were still being grown. I conducted interviews with 26 individuals from 12 counties in western North Carolina. I used a snowball sampling method to identify individuals or communities that maintained heirloom vegetable varieties, and used the ''memory banking'' of farmers' knowledge as a strategy to complement the gathering of seed specimens. Most of the varieties were grown and saved by homegardeners; beans were the most numerous. Results indicate that usually only one or two individuals in a community maintained significant numbers of heirloom varieties and that many communities have lost their heirloom vegetable heritage altogether. The decline of the farming population combined with a lack of cultural continuance in family seed-saving traditions threatens the ability of communities to maintain crop biodiversity. Some of the cultivars may represent the last (small) populations of endangered varieties.

BioOne (www.bioone.org) is a nonprofit, online aggregation of core research in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences. BioOne provides a sustainable online platform for over 170 journals and books published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

Historical ecology provides a research program and toolkit for applied interdisciplinary research in ethnobiology. With a focus on long-term changes in built environments and cultural landscapes, historical ecology emphasizes the need for scientific collaboration between disciplines for more relevant and applied academic research-particularly in service to environmental conservation and social justice.

Agrobiodiversity studies have been a longstanding and current research focus of anthropological inquiry. This article gives an overview of important ongoing anthropological topics of agrobiodiversity research including conservation, cultural memory, farmer decision making, and homegarden studies. It also points to future directions in agrobiodiversity research that have been understudied to date including agrobiodiversity and its relationship to climate change and migration, the potential marriage of agrobiodiversity and food studies, agrobiodiversity in the Global North, and the incorporation of agrobiodiversity into emergent sustainable/alternative agriculture systems. Agricultural anthropology is suggested as a potential holistic subdiscipline for incorporating anthropological studies of agrobiodiversity, which are currently not unified by any theoretical framework.

Research on human dimensions of ecosystems through the ecosystem services (ES) concept has proliferated over recent decades but has largely focused on monetary value of ecosystems while excluding other community-based values. We conducted 312 surveys of general community members and regional researchers and decision-makers (specialists) to understand local perceptions and values of watershed ES and natural resource management in South America's southern Patagonian ecoregion. Results indicated that specialists shared many similar values of ES with community members, but at the same time their mentalities did not capture the diversity of values that existed within the broader community. The supporting services were most highly valued by both groups, but generally poorly understood by the community. Many services that are not easily captured in monetary terms, particularly cultural services, were highly valued by community members and specialists. Both groups perceived a lack of communication and access to basic scientific information in current management approaches and differed slightly in their perspective on potential threats to ES. We recommend that a community-based approach be integrated into the natural resource management framework that better embodies the diversity of values that exist in these communities, while enhancing the science-society dialog and thereby encouraging the application of multiple forms of ecological knowledge in place-based environmental management.

Research to date on the relationship between climate change and agriculture has focused primarily on annual crops. Long-term perennial crops such as apple trees give researchers the opportunity to study a more longitudinal record of human-climate interactions. In Appalachia, one of the earliest orchard areas in the United States, many orchards have been run by single families for multiple generations, and oral histories contain climate information stretching back several decades or longer. We investigated folk crop varietal diversity in southern Appalachian orchards, grower observations and perceptions of environmental change, and the potential effects of climate change on apple diversity. Twenty-two orchardists were consulted in Appalachian North Carolina, using a combination of participant observation, free-listing exercises, in-depth semi-structured interviews, and benchmark socioeconomic surveys. We documented 450 apple ethnotaxa in 22 orchards. Our results show that although a majority of growers recognize increased climate variation and variability in annual and seasonal weather patterns, only a minority attribute those changes to human activity. The major environmental change of concern to orchardists in the study region is warmer winters and earlier springs, which can cause devastating losses to apple production. Current consumer and market trends are selecting away from diverse and potentially disease- and weather-resistant heirloom apple varieties toward modern commercial varieties that are highly susceptible to environmental change. Apple diversity is threatened in southern Appalachia as a result of multiple factors, yet maintaining high diversity levels may be a key adaptive strategy in the face of global climate change.