Our History: The Creation of ICEHO

As the first decade of the twenty-first century advanced, the International Consortium of Environmental History Organizations (ICEHO) was a project for which the time had arrived. To create it, however, a spark, nurturing hands, and much creative thinking were required. Environmental historians from all over the world worked to bring ICEHO into being, adding momentum that led it into maturity until it embedded itself successfully into the broader discipline. The idea behind this project grew strong in 2007, matured and bore fruit in 2009 with the first World Congress, and gained further momentum in 2013 with an established administrative structure and board. After holding four World Congresses, ICEHO continues to bring together environmental historians from around the world and to strengthen our understanding of the changing relations humans have had with environments across the globe.

The Early Landscape of Societies and Journals in Environmental History

ICEHO emerged from an intellectual landscape that had taken form over the course of three decades. With the explosion of “green’’ issues onto the political agenda in the 1960s and 1970s, new ideas began swirling around academic disciplines, including historical studies. It became clear that environmentalism unleashed fresh historical research themes and also suggested how older topics might be reconceptualised or reconsidered. As the field grew, pioneer scholars on these new historical paths began to unite into groups to share and debate their work. The first of these, in 1977, was the American Society for Environmental History (ASEH), initiated by John Opie, to which pioneers like Sam Hayes, Carolyn Merchant, J. Donald Hughes, Donald Worster, Roderick Nash, and others in the United States contributed. The ASEH began to hold conferences that, from the start, were extremely well attended and soon became a fixture in the scholarly calendar. A journal began to appear too, at first quite simple in format, but finding full expression in 1996 as Environmental History.

In other parts of the world, small, informal groups of researchers and more journals were started in response to the excitement of this new historical perspective. In 1995, initiated by Richard Grove, the journal Environment and History, based in the United Kingdom, began publication to cater for scholars working on colonial themes. In addition, as examples, a workshop was held at the University of Natal in 1996, organised by Ruth Edgecombe and Jane Carruthers, at which issues with a southern African resonance were discussed. That same year, Tom Griffiths and Libby Robin of the Australian National University (ANU), then visitors at the Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies at the University of London, organised a significant conference in London on the theme “Ecology and Empire.” In the late 1990s the Environmental History Network was formed by Stephen Dovers at the ANU and managed by Libby Robin. Christof Mauch, Director of the German Historical Institute in Washington DC, supported and hosted numerous environmentally themed workshops and conferences in the humanities during his directorship between 1999 and 2007. An additional development took place in 2000 when H-Environment, a platform within the H-Net network, succeeded the successful H-ASEH (edited by Dennis Williams, Mark Stoll, and Sarah Elkind) and provided accessible virtual space for wider and less formal environmental history discussion, debate, and news.

In this way, momentum was not only sustained but accelerated in many countries including those in Europe. In 2001, this led to the founding of the European Society for Environmental History (ESEH) by a group of scholars brought together by Ulrich Koppitz in 1999. The initial group included Christian Pfister, Sverker Sörlin, and Verena Winiwarter. A workshop was held in Germany with support from the Breuninger Foundation, which led to the first ESEH conference held at St Andrews, Scotland, in 2001, and convened biennially thereafter, gathering increasing numbers and influence. To cater for European diversity in geography, language, and national histories, regional representatives were elected to the society’s board. The ESEH was not without trailblazers, however; an earlier initiative, the European Association for Environmental History, had edited several issues of a newsletter that would later be incorporated into the Environment and History journal.

In 2003, the year in which ESEH had its second conference, the Latin Americans gathered for the first time in Santiago de Chile. They met again in 2004, in Havana, where the idea to create the Sociedad Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Historia Ambiental (SOLCHA: the Latin American and Caribbean Society for Environmental History) emerged. The society became official in 2006, in Carmona, Spain. Since then, SOLCHA has continued to hold biennial symposia and establish strong networks. In 2012, the society began publishing the journal Historia Ambiental Latinoamericana y Caribeña (HALAC).

In the years that followed, the geographical reach of environmental history was expanding to cover all of the Americas. In 2004, Alan MacEachern founded the Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE), a confederation of scholars working in Canada. Historical geographers, like Graeme Wynn and Matthew Evenden at the University of British Columbia, began to refer to themselves also as environmental historians and made their mark in international debates.

So important was this upwelling of interest in environmental history that even the venerable International Committee of Historical Sciences / Comité international des Sciences historiques (ICHS/CISH) took note of the field by arranging a plenary opening panel on environmental history that was organised by Ian Tyrrell at its conference in Sydney in 2005.

ICEHO Takes Shape

Informal discussions, principally initiated by Verena Winiwarter of the ESEH, began to bubble up about how a more global, or international, group might be created in which relevant research from anywhere in the world could be equally aired and debated. They took place, for example, in March 2007 at the ASEH Baton Rouge conference and revolved around how to broaden the collegiality of the sub-discipline and collaborations within it without compromising the strengths of existing (and perhaps future) regional endeavours.

In these deliberations, it was agreed upon that the optimum mechanism for global collaboration would not be to solicit individual membership from scholars, but rather to create an umbrella organisation akin to the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU, established in 1931) and its partner, the International Social Science Council (ISSC, founded in 1952), which in 2018 merged into the International Science Council. The vision began to develop of a similar over-arching organisation with membership comprising the existing societies, networks, institutes, and sub-groups of larger scholarly associations that would also encourage the setting up of new ones. Of importance, it seemed, was to test the interest and convene a conference that attracted scholars from anywhere on the globe and to see whether a critical mass and an enduring global network might be created.

The 4th ESEH conference in Amsterdam in June 2007 provided an ideal opportunity to tease out matters from many previous conversations. Its theme could not have been more apt: “Environmental Connections: Europe and the Wider World.” To signal this broader agenda, one of the keynote speakers, Jane Carruthers, was an African scholar, not a European one. Discussions about the international organisation were held with Steven Anderson of the Forest History Society, who had been closely involved in the creation of the ASEH. By that time, a kind of steering committee was in existence and serious planning began for a World Congress in Environmental History. Poul Holm, then Rector of Roskilde University in Denmark, and keen to promote environmental and marine history there, offered to provide the host institution and agreed that he would chair the Local Organising Committee, ably assisted by his young colleague and recent PhD graduate Bo Poulsen. Verena headed the Programme Committee, while Steve led the steering committee and the planning of the proposed consortium. All agreed that great effort should be made to include scholars from developing countries and those without established disciplinary societies.

By the following year there was more progress to report. While those in Europe were working out the details of the First World Congress (WCEH), the pace was building elsewhere. In 2008, Jane met with Steven Anderson and Cheryl Oakes of the Forest History Society in Durham, North Carolina, to organise the details of the International Consortium further. By that time, some 16–17 organisations had expressed an interest in joining what was beginning to be referred to as ICEHO. But matters such as eligibility, membership fees, fund-raising strategies, institutional partners (e.g., Mellon, the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment of the Humanities) and the setting up of technical, financial and bureaucratic structures were still very unclear. In June, Jane saw Christof Mauch in Washington DC, where his plans to found a research institute for environmental history were also taking shape. His vision came to fruition in 2009 in the highly successful and acclaimed Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (RCC), established in partnership with Helmuth Trischler of the Deutsches Museum. The centre would come to be situated within the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and was formally opened in 2010. These were exciting days indeed.

Other colleagues, particularly within Europe, but also in the United States, Australasia, India, South Africa, Latin America, and elsewhere continued finessing the details of convening the very large international congress planned for August 2009. Roskilde University experienced a change in leadership when Poul Holm left for Trinity College Dublin. However, Bo Poulsen and Maibritt Bager took over and worked in co-operation with Per Eliasson of Malmö University, Sweden, just across the Øresund Strait from Copenhagen. As the ESEH did not hold a European conference that year, to avoid competition, the conference also served as the ESEH meeting. Venues, entertainment, field trips, panel arrangements, keynote speakers, technological issues, and the allocation of various duties were arranged. Nothing like it had been done in the world of environmental history and ahead of it, the excitement – and the tension – was palpable. Could such a huge conference be pulled off successfully?

The First World Congress of Environmental History

The First World Congress was a resounding triumph with over 500 participants, and it set the pattern and the convivial ambience for the successful World Congresses that followed in 2014, 2019, and 2024. One of the keynote speakers was Paul Crutzen, 1995 Nobel Prize Laureate for Chemistry for his Ozone hole studies and populariser of the term “Anthropocene.” Conference attendance soared, high quality papers were presented, and the streets of Copenhagen thronged with environmental historians diverse in geographical origin and research specialisation, gender, and scholarly rank. A special volume of Skrifter med historiska perspektiv, titled Transcending Boundaries: Environmental Histories from the Oresund region, edited by Fredrik Björk, Per Eliasson and Bo Poulsen, was available, enabling participants to become familiar with the environmental history of the landscapes and peoples of the region. It is worth recording that participants from East Asia were inspired at this conference to form the Association for East Asian Environmental History (AEAEH).

This congress marked the start of ICEHO as an institution, with the inception of a group of scholars known as “the Roskilde Group” who were willing to devote their time to the project. It met a number of times in Copenhagen to discuss the details of a constitution, bylaws, executive positions, membership requirements, domicile for tax and similar purposes, terms of office, regularity of World Congresses, and other administrative matters. The local hosts even provided a team-building excursion on a Viking boat in Roskilde Bay close to the Viking Museum! After extensive dialogue, an interim leadership committee was agreed to, with Jane Carruthers as chair, and Verena Winiwarter, José Augusto Pádua, Ranjan Chakrabarti, Christof Mauch, Libby Robin and Steven Anderson as members. However, others – including Mauro Agnoletti, Bo Poulsen, Harriet Ritvo, Lisa Mighetto, Geneviève Massard-Guilbaud, and Johann Tempelhoff – participated and contributed to the lively conversations that aired different points of view.

*Participants at the First World Congress of Environmental History, Copenhagen, 2009. Shaped in the form of the new ICEHO logo – a water drop and the Earth.*

Institutionalising ICEHO

Logistics were a problem, as it was difficult for all involved, scattered around the world, to meet regularly in person. Some were able to attend certain conferences, while others attended different ones. In March 2010, conversations among ICEHO representatives continued at the ASEH conference in Portland, Oregon. Even though a provisional constitution was accepted and final bylaws considered, administrative matters dragged on for several years. Proposals were called for to host the Second World Congress in 2014 and a Site Selection Committee was convened, comprising Verena Winiwarter, Mauro Agnoletti, and Lisa Mighetto. A further meeting followed on January 2011 in Munich at the RCC, and yet another one took place in April that year in Phoenix, during the ASEH conference. Without rules, the election of officers had to be delayed.

It was agreed that a formal General Assembly should be convened at the ESEH meeting in Turku in June–July 2011 and a committee be elected there. The Turku meeting marked the formal inauguration of ICEHO, although there remained many details to be finalised. Jane Carruthers accepted the appointment as President for the period until the World Congress of 2014 was over. The following positions were confirmed: Dolly Jørgensen, Secretary; Steven Anderson, Treasurer, Libby Robin, Vice-President, and board members Verena Winiwarter, Mauro Agnoletti, Ranjan Chakrabarty, and Lise Sedrez. As Chair of the Nominating Committee, Christof Mauch, who had been of enormous assistance throughout the process, was to seek further positions on the Board. These were filled in 2012 by Alan McEachern, José Augusto Pádua, and James Beattie, and in 2013 by Shen Hou.

The lurs announced the arrival of ICEHO onto the international academic stage during the first World Congress. These bronze wind instruments, national symbols of Denmark, have a history dating back millennia and reference the Icelandic sagas.

In December 2011, Verena Winiwarter, Mario Agnoletti, and Jane Carruthers visited the University of Minho in Guimarães, northern Portugal, which in March had submitted a proposal for the Second World Congress. Arrangements went well: a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with the Rector, António Cunha, and there were meetings with the Local Organising Committee led by Estelita Vaz. In March 2012, an ICEHO meeting was held at the ASEH conference in Madison, Wisconsin, which Estelita Vaz attended. By then, ICEHO seemed comfortably on track.

Later that year, in June 2012, at the SOLCHA conference at Villa de Leyva in Colombia, Christof Mauch chaired a stimulating Round Table to discuss ‘’Internationalising Environmental History: Networks and Opportunities from around the Globe.’’ One contributor to that session was Heide Hackmann, then Executive Director of the International Social Science Council (ISSC). There were informal discussions about ICEHO joining the Council but, regrettably, nothing came of them, partly because the high cost of membership was prohibitive.

And then, in 2013, formal ICEHO elections were held in the first fully constituted General Assembly at the ESEH hosted in Munich by the Rachel Carson Center. At this General Assembly, held on 23 August, the Board that had already been operating was elected by paper ballot by majority vote for a three year term, except the secretary and the treasurer, which had four-year terms. The only change was the inclusion of John McNeill as ordinary member to replace James Beattie. Much of the discussion in Munich revolved around the Second World Congress to be held the following year.

Images 1 and 2: The steering committee of the First World Congress at work (1. Steven Anderson and Libby Robin. 2. Christof Mauch). Image 3: Team-building on the Viking ship. Image 4: Exhilaration and relief after the astounding success of the congress.

ICEHO Into the Future

The Second World Congress was as great a success as the first – and lasting outcomes of it have been the two-volume Springer publication Environmental History in the Making (2017), a collection of congress papers edited by Estelita Vaz, Cristina Joanas de Melo, and Lígia M. Costa Pinto, as well as ICEHO’s involvement in Guimarães and the EU European Green Capital application process for the city.

With a firm place in the international academic arena, the two following World Congresses – Florianópolis, Brazil, in 2019, and Oulu, Finland, in 2024 – were just as successful and equally enjoyable and academically rewarding. At an administrative level, the Presidents and Boards of ICEHO have been re-elected according to due process and continue to ensure that the Consortium runs smoothly.

It is pleasing to note in closing this record of some of the initial development of ICEHO that the vision has become reality and that the future is secured for the collegiality of the international community of environmental historians and others working in the environmental humanities. It remains to be seen if, amidst international turmoil, shrinking budgets, and rising greenhouse gas emissions, in-person World Congresses will continue to be the main offer of ICEHO, but it can be said with certainty that the camaraderie and trust of all actors involved would not have been possible over online conference tools. Sometimes hugs are as important as h-indices, or perhaps, even more important.

Jane Carruthers
Verena Winiwarter
Libby Robin

April 2025