The Commission on Anthropology and the Environment (CAE) is one of the scientific commissions of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES) established in 2013, now part of the World Anthropological Union (WAU). CAE began hosting panels at IUAES inter-congresses and world congresses, often jointly with other commissions from 2014. CAE serves as a vibrant international platform for anthropologists and allied scholars to explore, document, and critically engage with the dynamic and often fragile relationship between human beings and their environments.

In the face of climate change, biodiversity collapse, resource extraction, forced migration, and deepening environmental inequalities, the commission underscores the urgent role of anthropology in understanding how ecological transformations are lived, narrated, resisted, and reimagined. We aim to foster research and dialogue that cut across scales, from the everyday practices of households and communities to the global arenas of environmental policy and governance.

Our work emphasizes comparative and decolonial approaches that recognize and respect diverse ontologies of nature, Indigenous and local ecological knowledge systems, and multispecies entanglements. We encourage critical inquiry into issues such as environmental justice, rights of nature, food and water security, sustainability transitions, disaster vulnerability, and the ethics of conservation. At the same time, we highlight the creative and performative dimensions of environmental practices, acknowledging how communities employ ritual, art, storytelling, and performance to negotiate and express their ecological realities.

Methodologically, the Commission promotes innovation by bringing together long-term ethnography, collaborative and participatory fieldwork, digital and visual methods, ecological mapping, and multi-sited research. Such approaches allow us to connect grounded lived experiences with global structures of power, capital, and climate science, contributing to both theoretical debates and practical solutions.

The Commission provides a space for networking, mentorship, and international collaboration through panels, symposia, workshops, and field schools organized under the IUAES/WAU framework and beyond. By engaging with policymakers, activists, artists, and local communities, we strive to ensure that anthropological insights move beyond academic boundaries and contribute to creating more just, inclusive, and ecologically resilient futures. We work to illuminate lived experiences of environmental transformation, critique uneven vulnerabilities and “green” inequities, and imagine just, sustainable futures grounded in ecological care and cultural plurality.

At this moment of profound socio-ecological transformation, the Commission on Anthropology and the Environment seeks to amplify anthropology’s role as a discipline of care, critique, and creativity, one that listens deeply, speaks responsibly, and acts collectively in addressing the environmental challenges of our shared world.