Session Organizer(s): 
James Welch
*Contact the session organizers if you would like to contribute to this session.*

The ethics involved in conducting ethnobiology research involving human subjects, cultural patrimony, or biological systems sometimes become particularly complex when done outside of one's own culture or country. Although many central ethical principles recognized by scholarly associations are similar globally, diverse societies, bodies of law, academic traditions, and research institutions may understand and apply them differently. In some cases, where research authorizations and data collection procedures are codified or bureaucratized, navigating multiple ethical terrains may be rife with potential challenges and conflicts. Consequently, many researchers find it difficult to adhere to a single eternally delineated ethics framework, even one backed by force of law. How can ethnobiologists and ethnobiology organizations in the United States and other countries position themselves to work within and between ethical systems? How can they contribute to the development of responsible, effective, and fair ethics standards and policies? How does working internationally inform or complicate the process of designing and adhering to institutional ethics codification? In this session, we invite ethnobiologists to draw on their intercultural and international experiences to discuss such ethical challenges and how they have been or could be addressed for the sake of encouraging modes of research engagement that protect participants from real harm while facilitating responsible research.