Demeulenaere defends study supporting Indigenous participation in Serianthes preservation

Else Demeulenaere, the associate director of the University of Guam Center for Island Sustainability, has successfully defended her doctoral dissertation, “Rooted in Environmental Justice: Phytogeography and Ethnoecology of Serianthes,” on October 14.  

Demeulenaere’s dissertation focuses on the importance of integrating Indigenous participation and social movement perspectives in designing conservation policies and programs to protect the biocultural diversity of the Serianthes species on Guam and in the Micronesia.   

Each island has its own Indigenous name for the tree. On Guam and Rota, the Serianthes nelsonii, is known as Håyun lågu and Tronkon guåfi, respectively. Meanwhile, another species, the Serianthes kanehira, occurs in Palau and Yap, where they are called Ukall and Gumor, respectively.    

The future of the Serianthes is threatened by habitat loss and ecosystem degradation, according to Demeulenaere. In fact, 12 out of 18 Serianthes species in the Indo-Pacific Region are included in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.   

For her dissertation, Demeulenaere looked at several areas of research, from ethnoecology (traditional knowledge systems), systematic biogeography (scientific knowledge system), to environmental policy (Endangered Species Act). 

 Communities across the Indo-Pacific region still use the Serianthes for medicine, construction, and other traditional uses. In Palau, for example, the community still use its tall trunks to build canoes and to construct the Bai, a Palauan traditional meeting house. In her dissertation, Demeulenaere emphasized that the ecological fate of the Serianthes is tied to the cultural heritage of communities across the region.    

Demeulenaere  also touched on the social movement created by the need to protect the last Håyun lågu in Tailalo. Demeulenaere said the tree became an important symbol of the Prutehi Litekyan/Save Ritidian movement to protect Tailalo and Litekyan. “When the habitat of the tree became threatened by plans to construct a firing range by the Department of Defense, although people were not able to visit the tree because it is restricted military property, the spiritual connection remains and the longing to connect with this important indigenous natural history lives among the CHamoru people,” she said. 

Her phylogeographic research answered important conservation questions. Demeulenaere discovered through her phylogenomic research that the last Håyun lågu tree has a unique genotype, different from the Rota populations. Protecting the last adult tree and its habitat is therefore crucial for recovery of this critically endangered species. 

Looking at these elements and its implications to the conservation and protection of the Serianthes, Demeulenaere said, “I concluded that a bottom-up co-management approach with polycentric networks best fits the social-cultural system of Guåhan. I propose Indigenous participation and the creation of an advisory council, comprising traditional and scientific knowledge holders, to advise on biocultural diversity preservation in the Mariana Islands.”  

Else Demeulenaere is the Associate Director for Natural Resources, at the University of Guam’s Center for Island Sustainability, where she leads a team of biologists to conduct research on forest and watershed restoration, endangered species protection and recovery. Else is an avid advocate for sustainable living and the protection of Guam’s biocultural diversity. Else is an interdisciplinary PhD candidate in a joint program with the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of Guam. Her research focuses on the biogeography and ethnoecology of Serianthes in Micronesia, traditional ecological knowledge of endemic plant species, social activism, and aims to find policies benefiting the protection of Guam’s ecosystems and its people.