Paper short abstract:

Despite their relevance to questions of colonial impacts and legacies, Africa’s tropical islands have been largely overlooked. To bridge this gap, we discuss human-environment relationships, past and present, in São Tomé and Príncipe, one of the most understudied biodiversity hotspots in the world.

Paper long abstract:

Integrated archaeological and paleoecological research on tropical biodiversity hotspots is crucial to understand how historical human-environment interactions affected their resilience and vulnerability, what legacies have been left behind, and how these insights can contribute to the future sustainability of these environments. Africa’s islands, however, have been largely overlooked.

To bridge this gap, our research focuses on São Tomé and Príncipe, one of the most understudied biodiversity hotspots in the world, situated in West Africa's Gulf of Guinea. Being possibly the only country where no systematic archaeological fieldwork has yet taken place, Príncipe, in particular, offers an excellent research opportunity due to its exceptional biodiversity, high level of endemism, recent human presence, small size, low population, and limited urban development.

With our research, we aim to shed light on the historical relationship, past and present, between humans and their environment in the archipelago. Following our earlier paleoecological fieldwork – the first of its kind on Príncipe – we are currently planning the first archaeological research on the island through an archaeological reconnaissance of the entire island using technologies like LiDAR, along with archaeological surveys and test excavations.