Sacramento Permaculture Guild

Foreword

The myriad links between cultural and biological diversity are increasingly viewed as key elements in achieving sustainable development and the Millennium Development Goals. Because of its interdisciplinary nature, combining natural and social sciences, culture, education and communication, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is in a unique position to mainstream the links between biological and cultural diversity in research, political dialogue and action from local to international levels.

In 2002, together with the United Nations Environment Programme, UNESCO played a crucial role in convening the High Level Round Table on Cultural Diversity for Sustainable Development in the context of the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg. As a follow up to this event, UNESCO has developed a number of joint activities in the framework of the Main Line of Action on “Enhancing linkages between cultural and biological diversity as a key basis for sustainable development» - including initiatives focused on local, traditional and indigenous knowledge, languages, sustainable management of natural resources, as well as the publication on Conserving Cultural and Biological Diversity: The Role of Sacred Natural Sites and Cultural Landscapes” – to better understand and enhance the linkages between biological and cultural diversity and relate them to sustainable development policies at national, regional and international levels.

As a part of these efforts, an intersectoral UNESCO team in collaboration with The Christensen Fund organized an international workshop focusing on concepts, methods and experiences related to the linkages between biological and cultural diversity.The workshop was convened to provide guiding concepts and methods for a more systematic study of the linkages between biological and cultural diversity. It is hoped that the results of this workshop will be useful for orienting future integrated research at the biological-cultural diversity interface and developing strategies and policies that consider the maintenance and reinforcement of diversity – both biological and cultural – as requisite for development and prosperity.

For the future, UNESCO intends to play an active role with regard to the further study and promotion of the relationships between biological and cultural diversity. Priority will be given to developing integrated approaches to study these relationships. As a subset but key component of the interlinkages between biological and cultural diversity, the use of local and traditional knowledge for biodiversity and heritage conservation will be further studied and documented as well as the status and trends in linguistic diversity and the numbers of speakers of indigenous languages. Attention will be paid to distilling principles of biological-cultural diversity interactions that may assist with the design and implementation of relevant policies. Ultimately, the analytical and scientifi c work conducted by UNESCO in this area will assist the implementation and enhanced cooperation between normative instruments related to biological and cultural diversity, which will include but will not be limited to the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.

Walter Erdelen

Assistant Director-General for Natural Siences

Françoise Rivière

Assistant Director-General for Natural Siences