·    that the challenge of protecting, maintaining, and restoring the diversity of life on earth is the challenge of supporting and promoting diversity in nature and culture.

This set of beliefs informs our mission, vision, and fundamental goal, and guides the work we have been doing for over a decade.

Our Mission:
Terralingua supports the integrated protection, maintenance and restoration of the biocultural diversity of life - the world’s biological, cultural, and linguistic diversity - through an innovative program of research, education, policy-relevant work, and on-the-ground action.

Our Vision:
A just, equitable, sustainable world in which the biocultural diversity of life is valued, protected, and perpetuated for generations to come.

Our Goal:
To bring about a profound shift in human values through a deeper understanding and appreciation of the vital importance of biocultural diversity for the survival of all life on earth, so that individual and collective action is taken to care for it and sustain it in this rapidly changing world.

Our History and Accomplishments:Terralingua started in 1996 as an all-volunteer, “virtual” organization with the aim to raise awareness of the loss of biocultural diversity and the need to stem and reverse this loss for the survival of all life on earth. We launched our activities with the conference “Endangered Languages, Endangered Knowledge, Endangered Environments”, which we organized in 1996 (see L. Maffi, ed., On Biocultural Diversity, Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001). Our ideas spread rapidly, and within two years we were known internationally and began to be invited to collaborate with major environmental and cultural organizations and initiatives, including WWF, UNEP, UNESCO, IUCN, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and many other international, academic and research institutions, as well as museums. We are now widely recognized as pioneers and leaders in the field of biocultural diversity. Our efforts have been highly instrumental in putting biocultural diversity on the international agenda and in the program of work of international agencies.

In 2001, we received our first foundation support—an unsolicited, donor-initiated grant from the Ford Foundation, which allowed us to establish a long-term program of work that focuses on five areas: mapping biocultural diversity, measuring and monitoring biocultural diversity, maintaining biocultural diversity, networking for biocultural diversity, and promoting policies for biocultural diversity (see below for details). Since 2001, we have received support from The Christensen Fund, the International Development Research Centre (Canada), and a variety of international organizations and research institutions.

Our research is highly respected, and our publications are widely read and judged influential in illuminating and promoting the biocultural perspective. Our work has also sparked academic interest and attracted attention from media and the general public. Our field projects focus on restoring ecological and cultural resilience at landscape and regional levels. Through our worldwide network, we provide information, documentation, and expertise to individuals and grassroots organizations seeking to strengthen their ability to maintain their linguistic and cultural heritage, restore the health of their environments, and uphold their human rights. In 2008, in collaboration with IUCN and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), we co-organized a major follow-up symposium on biocultural diversity, “Sustaining Cultural and Biological Diversity in a Rapidly Changing World: Lessons for Public Policy”, which was held at AMNH in New York, 2-5 April 2008. We will be active participants in the WCC, organizing various biocultural events and co-sponsoring several biocultural-related motions.

Our Program of Work:Since 2001, we have developed a comprehensive program of work, the Global Biocultural Diversity Assessment, which focuses on four main areas: mapping biocultural diversity, measuring and monitoring biocultural diversity, maintaining biocultural diversity, and networking for biocultural diversity. In addition, we have focused on promoting policies for biocultural diversity at the international level. Our work has had a major role in giving shape to these key aspects of the field of biocultural diversity.

·         Mapping Biocultural Diversity: Through our research, we have mapped the global overlapping distributions of biodiversity and cultural diversity, and have identified “core areas” of biocultural diversity: regions that are highly diverse in both nature and culture. We are preparing an Atlas of Biocultural Diversity to tell the story of biocultural diversity through maps: why biocultural diversity is distributed the way it is, what makes it resilient, what threatens it, where it is persistent, where it is being lost, and why all this matters. The Atlas will be a key resource for researchers, educators, and the general public.

·         Measuring and Monitoring Biocultural Diversity: How do we know what is happening with the world’s biocultural diversity, and particularly with the worlds’ languages and traditional environmental knowledge (TEK)? How do the trends in persistence or loss of languages and TEK compare with the trends in biodiversity? To answer these critical questions, Terralingua developed a global Index of Biocultural Diversity and is working on an Index of Linguistic Diversity and a Vitality Index of Traditional Environmental Knowledge. Together, these tools allow for an assessment of the state of biocultural diversity at different levels, from the local to the global. These tools will benefit policy making and biocultural conservation planning.

·         Maintaining Biocultural Diversity: What is happening with biocultural diversity at the local level? Worldwide, the threats to traditional societies, their cultures, their languages, and their environments are severe. In many places, this has already caused significant erosion of biocultural diversity. In other places, traditional societies are still resilient, but encroachment is relentless. In all cases, maintaining and restoring ecological and cultural health is the great challenge of our times. Terralingua is working with the indigenous Rarámuri people in the Sierra Tarahumara of northern Mexico on the project Eco-Cultural Health in the Sierra Tarahumara, Mexico, to assist their efforts to continue their way of life in the landscape in which they have lived for generations. Both are under threat by economic, political, and social forces. On the Rarámuri’s request, our initial focus has been on drinking water, hygiene and sanitation, and ecological restoration. Future plans include the development of an alternative school curriculum focused on Rarámuri language and culture and a program to “train the trainers” in eco-cultural health restoration.

·         Networking for Biocultural Diversity: How do we bring about favorable change for biocultural diversity? One way is to increase the visibility of what people are doing on the ground to maintain and restore biocultural diversity. Innumerable efforts are underway, but most fall “under the radar” for lack of visibility, and the lessons from these projects cannot easily be learned. Terralingua is writing down the lessons learned from 45 projects from all over the world in a Global Source Book on Biocultural Diversity, which will be available to all those who want to learn more about these efforts and their global significance. By creating a network of biocultural diversity conservation practitioners, we are also helping to “connect the dots” among people on all continents who are working to strengthen and recover the health and vitality of local cultures and environments.

·         Policy Making for Biocultural Diversity: How do we bring about favorable change for biocultural diversity? Another way is by fostering the development of policies that recognize the vital importance of the diversity of life in nature and culture, and promoting action to implement that recognition at international and national levels. Currently, as a member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Terralingua is working in preparation for IUCN’s 4^th World Conservation Congress (WCC), to be held in Barcelona in October 2008, where issues of cultural diversity as relevant for the conservation of biodiversity will be on the table. We are organizing or co-organizing three events on biocultural diversity during the WCC Forum and co-sponsoring three resolutions for the vote of the IUCN’s membership: one on “Integrating Culture and Cultural Diversity into IUCN’s Policy and Programme”; one on “IUCN Adoption of Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples”; and one on “Recognition and Conservation of Sacred Natural Sites in Protected Areas”.

Next Steps: Ultimately, we want to see a world in which Terralingua has become obsolete—no longer needed, because biocultural diversity is appreciated as vital, and therefore cherished, restored, and sustained. We have made much progress, but there still is a long way to go to promote understanding of diversity in nature and culture as an essential condition for the survival of life on earth—and to bridge the gap between that knowledge and the individual and collective actions needed to protect and perpetuate biocultural diversity. In addition to continuing our existing, long-term lines of work, we intend to engage in a major, multifaceted educational effort to mainstream the concept of biocultural diversity among the general public, through schools, universities, professional training programs, as well as the use of the arts and media. Education will be a new, important focus of our program of work in the foreseeable future.

For more information on Terralingua, please visit www.terralingua.org.