Travelling Tea Plants in
East Africa
Photo: Bengt G. Karlsson
Bengt G.
Karlsson
CASE 1. Travelling Tea Plants in
East Africa
British settlers brought the Assam tea plant from India to East Africa, turning dense forests into monocultural plantations. Climate change and plant breeding reducing the tea species’ genetic diversity have now made these plantations highly vulnerable. Tea plants have also escaped into nearby forest and become ”invasive”.
Plants do move, but at a pace and in manners that humans tend to miss. British planters carried seeds across the Indian Ocean to grow tea on colonized lands.
"
"
Selected publications
Dealing with Biodiversity Dilemmas in Ordinary Places: The Case of Invasive and Introduced Species
2024. von Essen, E., Ahlberg, K., Cole, T., Karlsson B. G., and Maček, I. Nature and Culture 19(3): 237-45. https://doi.org/10.3167/nc.2024.190301
The Imperial Weight of Tea
2021. Karlsson, B. G. Geoforum: 1-10.
Life and Death in the Plantation
2021. Karlsson, B. G. Seedways: 121-44.
News
Social Anthropologists call for more complexity in biodiversity debate
Increasingly, animal and plant species are being moved, or migrating to new places as a result of climate change, trade and new infrastructure. While often referred to as ‘invasive’, the researchers behind the BIOrdinary project prefer to speak of migratory species. They want to shift the debate to focus on local contexts and contribute to a more nuanced understanding of biodiversity.
Blog posts
2 May, 2024 Travelling Tea Plants
