Motion 094

The resolution – Promoting the Protection of Indigenous Languages, is essential because of the increasing disappearance of Indigenous languages erasing valuable traditional knowledge about ecosystems and environmental management. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Indigenous Peoples made two predictions: an optimistic one – suggesting that “at least 50 percent of today’s spoken languages will be extinct or seriously endangered by 2100”,61 and a more pessimistic one – predicting that 90 to 95 percent will be extinct or seriously endangered by 2100. Time is of the essence. If the disappearance of these languages is permitted, the related knowledge on environmental conservation and biodiversity protection will also be lost. These languages hold concepts relating to the environment that express precise meanings and connotations that do not exist in dominate colonial languages. For example, the endangered Hawaiian language, ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, encodes valuable environmental knowledge, such as the lifecycle of the indigenous striped mullet (Mugil cephalus), a fish of cultural and ecological importance. Different names for the mullet correspond to its size, seasons based on their presence along shorelines, and migration patterns, reflecting a deep understanding of its lifecycle. This knowledge reinforces sustainable fishing practices and cultural values for future generations of lawaiʻa pono (righteous fishers).

Currently, there are 7,168 spoken languages, of which over 4,000 are Indigenous. Indigenous Peoples, despite representing less than 6% of the global population, are stewards of much of the world's linguistic and ecological diversity. However, fewer than a few hundred Indigenous languages have official recognition. Languages are more than communication tools; they are vessels of intangible cultural heritage. Knowledge is woven into the cultural fabric of Indigenous Peoples, their communities and individual members. With each language that dies, a cultural heritage and knowledge about ecosystems and biodiversity is irretrievably lost. Indigenous territories often overlap with the world's most biodiverse regions, making the preservation of their languages vital for environmental management. The erosion of this knowledge directly undermines the world’s capacity to manage biodiversity and ecosystems.

Languages are being lost at a frightening velocity. This was underscored by alarming statistics: from 1950 to 2010, 230 languages went extinct, and today, a third of the world’s languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers. A language is considered at risk of extinction when there are less than 100,000 speakers. Without intervention, the extinction rate will escalate, permanently erasing cultural heritage and ecological wisdom.

The resolutions of IUCN have successfully brought to global attention the rights of Indigenous Peoples and the importance respecting such rights. However, there has been a lack of focus oriented directly to the protection of Indigenous languages. Therefore, this motion urges the IUCN to prioritize Indigenous language preservation as a critical component of conservation efforts. By safeguarding these languages, the IUCN can support Indigenous Peoples to transmit their ecological knowledge to future generations. Collaborating with Indigenous Peoples will enhance linguistic diversity, protect biodiversity, and ensure a sustainable future for humanity and the planet.

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The social and environmental challenges to biodiversity and global climate cannot be resolved through top-down enforcement and regulation alone. They need understanding and cooperation from Indigenous Peoples and a myriad of Local Communities globally. Combining bottom-up and top-down approaches to these issues is necessary to effect transformative changes in behaviour and to motivate elected governments to effect changes (IPBES NEXUS & Transformative Change reports).
Winning the support and understanding of local communities needs two-way communication in many languages and, to ensure that the process is co-creative, tools for exchange of information that attract participation. On one hand, misinformation needs to be countered by conveying science-based facts clearly to local people in their mother tongues. On another hand, indigenous and local knowledge is essential to inform development both of decision support for adaptive management locally and of adaptive governance at all levels. Thus, information exchange for environmental decision support also needs multilingual tools, which are rare (IPBES data) but being developed by groups in IUCN Commissions working with IUCN Members.
Following EU Research Framework Projects that demonstrated the importance for conservation of adaptive management and knowledge leadership, the International Association for Falconry and Conservation of Birds of Prey, working with a range of partners including CMS/UNEP, IUCN and BirdLife International, has gained experience in the development and use of multilingual internet portals to disseminate knowledge to local communities, including the establishment of volunteer translator teams. However, funding the development of multilingual decision-support tools for local level has had to wait until European Sustainable Use Group, an IUCN Member spun out of SSC, won coordination of a Horizon project on guiding Transformative Change through Nexus factors with responsibility to run a Community Sustainability Platform for this until 2033. This motion combines encouragement to Members and UN agencies to support, and help provide the minimal funding for this frugal process, with recognition of the IPBES reports which underpin this IUCN-centred initiative.

Short Version:

Addressing biodiversity and climate challenges requires both top-down regulation and bottom-up cooperation from Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities to foster transformative change (IPBES reports). Their support depends on multilingual, two-way communication that conveys science-based facts clearly while integrating local and indigenous knowledge.
The proponent, with partners like CMS/UNEP, IUCN, and BirdLife International, has developed multilingual tools and networks to support decision-making, including volunteer translator teams. Support and minimal funding are crucial to scale these cost-effective tools. The European Sustainable Use Group’s Horizon project leads this work through 2033 as part of a platform for guiding transformative change.