matt hall
I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Centre for Middle Eastern Plants (CMEP) at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE).
My work for CMEP spans several plant related disciplines: taxonomy, ecological surveying, in situ conservation assessment and planning, ex situ conservation, protected area management, conservation theory and also ethnobiology. This work takes place across the wider Middle East and North Africa (see projects below).
I also work within an inter-disciplinary field which I call philosophical botany. This work stems from my PhD thesis from the Australian National University – a survey of human plant perceptions across religious, scientific and philosophical thought. Philosophical botany works across the humanities and the sciences to question the human relationships with those green beings which underpin all life in the biosphere. To date I have several articles and a forthcoming book in this research field (see below).
Philosophical Botany
Plants as Persons: A Philosophical Botany
Plants are ecologically fundamental and the treatment of plants as inferior, and purely as a resource, has important consequences for the western perception of and behaviour towards the wider natural world. Plants as Persons examines the backgrounding and hierarchical ordering of plants in western philosophies. From this background of exclusion, a multicultural, interdisciplinary analysis of philosophical, anthropological, botanical and religious texts seeks to uncover more appropriate behaviour towards plants in the context of an anthropogenic extinction crisis. Plants as Persons: A Philosophical Botany will be published by SUNY press in 2010. See webpage.
Plant Ethics and Plant Love
Emerging from my doctoral research in philosophical botany, I have a number of published and forthcoming articles on human-plant relationships. These include papers on human-plant ethics, The Day of the Triffids, philosophical gardening and human-plant love. See articles below.
Centre for Middle Eastern Plants
My work for CMEP is wide ranging and here is just a sample of the projects which I am currently involved with. For more see my webpage.
Valley Forests
Restricted to 10 fragmented localities in Yemen and Saudi Arabia (less than 100ha) ‘valley forest’ is rarest plant habitats in the Arabian Peninsula. Composed of a canopy of predominantly tropical trees reaching up to 30m tall, valley forest is also some of the densest vegetation in the arid Arabian landscape (see figure 1). As part of survey teams from RBGE and local conservation agencies, my work involves surveying the extent, composition and quality of valley forest. Of particular importance is the mapping of rare and endemic species. Funded by a British Council ‘Darwin Now’ award this work will also involve conducting surveys of similar vegetation in the eastern escarpment mountains of Eritrea.
Important Plant Areas
As part of the the IUCN Arabian Plant Specialist Group (APSG) I am involved in the Important Plant Areas programme for the Arabian Peninsula. The aim of this ongoing programme is to assess hotspots of plant diversity in the region and designate the most important as Important Plant Areas (IPA). My role has involves refining the criteria for IPA selection and conducting botanical surveys of proposed IPAs in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
Green Mountain Project for a Sustainable Future
Jabal Akhdar is a region of high botanical diversity and endemism on the Mediterranean coast of Libya. Working within a multidisciplinary consultancy team my role is to assess the requirements for local biodiversity surveys, the establishment of a systematic conservation plan, building capacity in biodiversity research and providing world class environmental education.
Articles
Botany
Philosophical Botany
My work for CMEP spans several plant related disciplines: taxonomy, ecological surveying, in situ conservation assessment and planning, ex situ conservation, protected area management, conservation theory and also ethnobiology. This work takes place across the wider Middle East and North Africa (see projects below).
I also work within an inter-disciplinary field which I call philosophical botany. This work stems from my PhD thesis from the Australian National University – a survey of human plant perceptions across religious, scientific and philosophical thought. Philosophical botany works across the humanities and the sciences to question the human relationships with those green beings which underpin all life in the biosphere. To date I have several articles and a forthcoming book in this research field (see below).
Philosophical Botany
Plants as Persons: A Philosophical Botany
Plants are ecologically fundamental and the treatment of plants as inferior, and purely as a resource, has important consequences for the western perception of and behaviour towards the wider natural world. Plants as Persons examines the backgrounding and hierarchical ordering of plants in western philosophies. From this background of exclusion, a multicultural, interdisciplinary analysis of philosophical, anthropological, botanical and religious texts seeks to uncover more appropriate behaviour towards plants in the context of an anthropogenic extinction crisis. Plants as Persons: A Philosophical Botany will be published by SUNY press in 2010. See webpage.
Plant Ethics and Plant Love
Emerging from my doctoral research in philosophical botany, I have a number of published and forthcoming articles on human-plant relationships. These include papers on human-plant ethics, The Day of the Triffids, philosophical gardening and human-plant love. See articles below.
Centre for Middle Eastern Plants
My work for CMEP is wide ranging and here is just a sample of the projects which I am currently involved with. For more see my webpage.
Valley Forests
Restricted to 10 fragmented localities in Yemen and Saudi Arabia (less than 100ha) ‘valley forest’ is rarest plant habitats in the Arabian Peninsula. Composed of a canopy of predominantly tropical trees reaching up to 30m tall, valley forest is also some of the densest vegetation in the arid Arabian landscape (see figure 1). As part of survey teams from RBGE and local conservation agencies, my work involves surveying the extent, composition and quality of valley forest. Of particular importance is the mapping of rare and endemic species. Funded by a British Council ‘Darwin Now’ award this work will also involve conducting surveys of similar vegetation in the eastern escarpment mountains of Eritrea.
Important Plant Areas
As part of the the IUCN Arabian Plant Specialist Group (APSG) I am involved in the Important Plant Areas programme for the Arabian Peninsula. The aim of this ongoing programme is to assess hotspots of plant diversity in the region and designate the most important as Important Plant Areas (IPA). My role has involves refining the criteria for IPA selection and conducting botanical surveys of proposed IPAs in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
Green Mountain Project for a Sustainable Future
Jabal Akhdar is a region of high botanical diversity and endemism on the Mediterranean coast of Libya. Working within a multidisciplinary consultancy team my role is to assess the requirements for local biodiversity surveys, the establishment of a systematic conservation plan, building capacity in biodiversity research and providing world class environmental education.
Articles
Botany
- Abbasi, T.M., Al-Farhan, A., Al-Khulaidi, A.W., Hall, M., Llewellyn, O., Miller, A.G., Patzelt, A. (2010). Important Plant Areas in the Arabian Region. Edinburgh Journal of Botany 67 (1). (In Press).
- Hall, M., Al-Khulaidi, A.W., Miller, A.G., Scholte, P. and Al-Qadasi, A.H. (2008). Arabia’s Last Forests Under Threat: Plant Biodiversity and Conservation in the Valley Forest of Jabal Bura (Yemen). Edinburgh Journal of Botany 65: 113-135.
- Hall, M., Al-Khulaidi, A.W., Miller, A.G., Scholte, P. and Al-Qadasi, A.H. (2009). Arabia’s Last Forest’s Under Threat II: Remaining Fragments of Valley Forest in South West Arabia. Edinburgh Journal of Botany 66 : 263-281.
- Hall, M. & Miller, A.G. (2010). Documenting Arabian Plants in a Changing Climate. In Hodkinson, T.R., Jones, M.B., Waldren, S. & Parnell, J.A.N (eds.) Climate Change, Ecology and Systematics. Cambridge University Press.
- Miller, A.G., Watson, M., Knees, S., Pendry, C., Pullan, M and Hall, M (2007). Floras Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Proceedings of the Sixth Biennial Conference of the Systematics Association 28-31 August. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
- Llewellyn, O.A, Hall, M.,Miller, A.G., Abbasi,T.M., Al-Wetaid, A.H., Al-Harbi, R.J, Al-Shammari, K.F and Al-Farhan, A (2010). Important Plant Areas of the Arabian Peninsula – Jabal Qaraqir. Edinburgh Journal of Botany 67 (1). (In Press).
Philosophical Botany
- Hall, M (2009). Plant Autonomy and Human-Plant Ethics. Environmental Ethics 16: 169-181.
- Hall, M (2009). It’s a Jungle Out There. Product 16: 32-33.
- Hall, M (2010). Escaping Eden –Plant Ethics in the Garden. In O’Brien, D (ed.) Gardening and Philosophy. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford. Forthcoming.
- Hall, M. Questions of Human-Plant Love: Tales from the Arabian Highlands. In Rose, D and van Dooren, T (eds) Unloved Others. Death of the Disregarded in a Time of Extinctions. Forthcoming.
