South African environmental historian Jane Carruthers has been elected President of the inaugural Board of a new international organisation for environmental history at a meeting in Turku, Finland in July. The International Consortium of Environmental History Organizations (ICEHO) met during the biannual meeting of the European Society for Environmental History (ESEH). It represents a wide range of international environmental history groups, including ESEH, the American Society for Environmental History (ASEH) the Latin American and Caribbean Environmental History Association (Sociedad Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Historia Ambiental SOLCHA), various forest and water history societies and scholarly networks, and universities and museums with interests in environmental history.
ICEHO’s new board includes members from every inhabited continent: Dolly Jørgensen (Environmental history network for the middle ages ENFORMA/Nordic Environmental History Network) is secretary, Steve Anderson (Forest History Society) is treasurer, and Libby Robin (Australia and New Zealand Environmental History Network/National Museum of Australia) is vice-President. The other board members are Mauro Agnoletti (International Union of Forest Research Organisations/ Editor in Chief Global Environment), Ranjan Chakrabarty (Association of South Asia Environmental Historians), Lise Sendez (SOLCHA) and Verena Winiwarter (ESEH and Chair of the Scientific Program Committee for WCEH2009).
The chair of the former provisional board of ICEHO, Christof Mauch (Rachel Carson Center, LMU, Munich/ESEH) is Chair the new Nominating Committee, which is seeking nominations for four further positions to the board. Other members of the nominating committee are Andrea Gaynor (Australia) and Stefania Gallini (Colombia). Christof has worked tirelessly over the past two years to bring the board together. Steven Anderson, who has incorporated ICEHO in the state of North Carolina, USA for tax purposes, is also to be thanked for important foundational work on the consortium.
One of the important activities of ICEHO is the World Congress of Environmental History, held every 5 years. The first WCEH was held in Copenhagen in July 2009, co-hosted by Roskilde University (Denmark) and Malmö University (Sweden), and ESEH and ASEH. Mauro Agnoletti, Lisa Mighetto (ASEH) and Verena Winiwater have selected the site for the next WCEH, which will be held in July 2014 in Guimarães, Portugal and hosted by Minho University.
