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Alain Cuerrier, botanist and researcher

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Alain Cuerrier
Photo: IRBV / Amélie Philibert
 Alain Cuerrier
  •  Alain Cuerrier
  • Torngat Mountains National Park base camp
  • Rhodiola rosea (roseroot)
  • Interview about harvest sites with the help of a map of Nain, Nunatsiavut, Labrador

Ethnobotanist Alain Cuerrier works on the perspectives of animals, plants, and landscapes held by the First Nations of Québec and elsewhere. He is interested in their use of plants, both medicinal and edible. He aims to document and preserve knowledge that is primarily passed down orally.

Areas of research and expertise

  • Ethnobotany
  • Ethnozoology
  • Ethnoecology
  • Medicinal plants
  • The impact of harvesting on biodiversity
  • Climate change in the Canadian Arctic
  • Food security

Education

Doctorate – Biological sciences, 1998
Université de Montréal

Preserving the botanical knowledge of First Nations

Alain Cuerrier’s field of research lies at the intersection of the human, animal, and plant worlds, and their habitats or biomes.

Armed with paper, pencil, and tape recorder, he conducts individual interviews or focus groups in the communities (Cree, Innu, Inuit, etc.) with whom he works in partnership.

Alain Cuerrier also travels into the forest or tundra with Indigenous communities to help them identify and name the plants they use. Sometimes his exchanges with communities lead him to design projects in ecology or pharmacology.

In the laboratory, for example, he is working to reduce the high rate of diabetes among First Nations. To do this, he combines traditional knowledge, science, and the analysis of plants identified by the communities as having antidiabetic potential.