Tony Bennett, Differing diversities - Council of Europe

Differing diversitiesThe relationship between cultural diversity and biodiversityHuman cultural diversity, it is believed, is threatened on an unprecedented scale(Posey, 2000: 3). Languages are generally seen as major indicators of culturaldiversity – the codifications, heritages, and frameworks which constitute a society’sunique understanding of the natural and social world. An estimated half ofthese will disappear within the next century (Unesco, 1993). Since 4000 to 5000of the 6000 languages in the world are spoken by indigenous peoples, and theseare the most endangered of languages, the loss of cultural diversity will affectthese peoples disproportionately. The countries which contain peoples speakingthe largest numbers of languages are also those that house the greatest biologicaldiversity in terms of species and variations in interspecies, and include the greatestnumbers of indigenous peoples and communities with traditional, near-subsistencelivelihoods. Although no universally accepted definition of indigenous peoplesor of traditional communities exists, the majority of the world’s ruralpopulations live in direct dependence upon their knowledge of and use of localecosystem resources. These resources are also disappearing at an alarming ratewith dire consequences for those peoples whose livelihoods depend upon them. 2The world’s poor rely upon biological products from local sources for 85% of theirneeds (for example, for food, fuel, shelter, medicine, etc.), over 1.4 billion rural peoplerely upon farm-saved seeds and local plant breeding for their subsistence, morethan three quarters of the world’s population relies on the knowledge of local healthpractitioners and traditional medicines for their primary medical needs, and over halfof the world’s drugs are derived from plants (Crucible II Group, 2000: 1). New plantgenetic resources are needed in the pharmaceutical, agricultural, and biotechnologicalindustries on a regular basis, yet the social and cultural conditions that nurturetheir ongoing development and ensure their continuing variation are threatened.Plant genetic diversity is considered a human legacy but it is one that is sustainedlargely by the uncompensated work of culturally diverse, politically vulnerable,and impoverished peoples. 3Only to the extent that such practices are supported, encouraged, and maintainedby in situ conservation measures will biodiversity be maintained. 4 Hence, the CBDpreamble recognises the “close and traditional dependence of many indigenousand local communities embodying traditional lifestyles on biological resources,and the desirability of sharing equitably benefits arising from the use of traditionalknowledge, innovations and practices relevant to the conservation of biologicaldiversity and the sustainable use of its components”. This is indicative of a globalrecognition that biodiversity preservation is an inherently multicultural process.Indigenous knowledges may be understood as the cultural knowledges of local peoplesconcerning the everyday realities of living that are the product of a direct experiencewith nature and a particular, local ecosystem. 5 Indigenous knowledge, “the170