Rongelap Ethnobotany

In 2000 the Rongelap Atoll Local Government contracted to work with the University of Hawai`i to conduct a series of analytical and development projects related to resettlement of Rongelap Atoll and preparation of Ailinginae Atoll as a National Park and World Heritage Site. Biologists, including a number from the Botany Department were involved in various aspects as requested by the government. Most of the work that was conducted was done solely for the benefit of the Rongelap people and is not available for general consumption, but some projects were done with the idea that they would eventually be published.

Ethnobotanical and ecological work was conducted by myself, Kim Bridges and our graduate students and collaborators at Rongelap and Ailinginae Atolls between 2000 and 2003.

Publications

• Stevens-Releford, J., J. Stevens, K.W. Bridges & W.C. McClatchey. 2009. Flora of Rongelap and Ailinginae atolls, Republic of the Marshall Islands. Atoll Research Bulletin 572:1-13.
• Bridges, K.W. & W.C. McClatchey. 2009. Living on the margin: Ethnoecological insights from Marshall Islanders at Rongelap atoll. Global Environmental Change 19:148.
• McClatchey, W. & K.W. Bridges. 2007. The Importance of Scale in Determination of Human Population Distributions in the Marshall Islands. Pp. 25-37 in Recent Trends in Ethnopharmacology and Ethnobotany. Edited by U.P. Albuquerque. Research Signpost Press, Kerela.
• Bridges, K. & W. McClatchey. 2005. Complementing PABITRA High-Island Studies by Examining Terrestrial Plant Diversity in Atolls. Pacific Science 59:261-272.
• McClatchey, W., R. Thaman & S. Juvik. 2004. Ethnobiodiversity Surveys of Human/Ecosystem Relationships. Pp. 159-196 in Biodiversity Assessment of Tropical Island Ecosystems. Edited by Dieter Mueller Dombois, Kim Bridges, and Curt Daehler, University of Hawaii, Honolulu.
• McClatchey, W. 2003. Diversity of Growth Forms and Uses in the Morinda citrifolia L. Complex. Pp. 5-10 in Proceedings of the 2002 Hawai‘i Noni Conference. Edited by Scot C. Nelson, University of Hawai‘i College of Tropical Agriculture, Honolulu.