Dr Sarah Edwards: Culture, Conservation & Connection Exploring
Dr Sarah Edwards, University of Oxford,
Lecture Theatre, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh
Date: Thursday 17 September, 2026 Edinburgh, from 6:00-7:00pm – (Tea/coffee and biscuits will be available from 5:30 pm as usual)
Venue: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Science Building, 20a Inverleith Row, EH3 5LR
Venue Note: To access the lecture please enter via the Science Buildings main reception, 20A Inverleith Row, Edinburgh EH3 5LR. Note this is NOT the public entrance to the gardens. what3words ///ROPES.DINNER.CLUBS
Abstract: What can plants teach us about the relationships between culture, place, and conservation? Drawing on my work as an ethnobotanical practitioner, this talk will explore diverse relationships between people and plants across northern Australia, NE. Brazil, South Wales, and Mount Elgon, Kenya. From working with First Nations communities and the Ogiek Indigenous community, to collaborating with farmers, artists and young people, I will consider how plant knowledge connects people to place, identity and cultural practice. I will also reflect on collaborative efforts to conserve threatened Rafflesia species in Southeast Asia. Together, these experiences illustrate the importance of ethnobotany in understanding and sustaining the world’s biocultural diversity.
BIO: Dr. Sarah Edwards is an ethnobotanist whose interdisciplinary work explores the relationships between plants, people, health, and the environment. She is Plant Records Officer at Oxford Botanic Garden & Arboretum and teaches ethnobotany at the University of Oxford. Her field experience includes collaborative work with First Nations communities in northern Australia, artists and farmers in South Wales, and the Ogiek Indigenous community of Mount Elgon, Kenya. Her work encompasses medicinal plant research, biocultural knowledge conservation, and community engagement, including current collaborative work to conserve threatened Rafflesia species. She is the author of The Ethnobotanical (Kew Publishing, 2023), exploring the diverse ways in which people understand and engage with plants.
