Tony Bennett, Differing diversities - Council of Europe

Reasearch position paper 7Programme. The site also houses the CBD clearing houses for Niger, the Congo, Chad,Mauritania, and Burkina Faso. Within the framework of the Belgian Research Network(Belnet), the Workgroup on Biodiversity has launched a two-part initiative. The firstpart is an inventory of biodiversity resources in Belgium – not limited to biodiversity inBelgian territory – that refers to universities, research institutes, botanical gardens, zoosand aquaria, museums, nature education centres, associations, libraries and naturereserves. The second part of the initiative will create an inventory of the content of thedatabases on biodiversity kept in Belgium. The linkage between biodiversity and culturaldiversity could be made more explicit in such projects.See (30.07.00).37. Most of the world’s linguistic diversity is carried by small communities of indigenousand minority peoples. Indigenous and minority languages encode distinct forms ofknowledge and cognitive maps of local ecosystems that cannot simply be translatedinto dominant languages. Nor can such diversity be reduced to nomenclature.Ethnobiologists now recognise that traditional ecological knowledge is not about entitiesper se, such as natural kinds, but about natural processes and relations among entities,such as the relationships among plant and animal species or between humans andthe ecosystem. Moreover, this knowledge is not carried simply in linguistic terms but ingrammar and speech formulas and culturally conventionalised ways of expressing spatial,temporal and causal relations. The relationship between landscapes and languagesis in many cases mutually constitutive. See the extensive discussion in Maffi andSkutnabb-Kangas, 2000.38. For a longer discussion of making prior informed consent a condition precedent forreceiving a patent, see Coombe, 1998.39. This project is sponsored by the World Wildlife Federation India and is co-ordinatedwith the Centre for Ecological Sciences of the Indian Institute of Science and theFoundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions in Bangalore. For more informationon People’s Biodiversity Registers, see Gadgil et al., 2000.40. This project has been developed by the Society for Research and Initiatives forSustainable Technologies and Institutions in Ahmedabad and is managed by ProfessorAnil Gupta of the Indian Institute of Management.41. For example, the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation supports theFarmers’ Rights Information Service (FRIS) developed by the M.S. SwaminathanResearch Foundation India to educate the public about India’s heritage of biodiversityand current issues of significance in the preservation of agro-biodiversity, including theneed for incentives to support ongoing activities of genetic stewardship. As thefounder’s introduction explains, “exchange of information, technical and scientific cooperation,research and training, public education and identification of suitable financialresources are all important for arresting the loss of agro-biodiversity”. The websiteoperates as part of an emerging network that links local and indigenous communities inconservation efforts: “With the emergence of democratic systems of governance worldwideand with the onset of the information superhighway, the widespread involvementof grassroots level peoples' organisations in the conservation movement is becomingfeasible. In addition to information dissemination through printed and electronic media,‘awareness through action’ programmes will have to be fostered in schools and colleges.”Available from World Wide Web: (30.07.00).The website’s founder believes that “the information age has provided tools such as theInternet and GIS mapping to promote a learning revolution in agriculture” and uses thesite to participate in this revolution. The site operates as a tutorial and teaches that: entitlements,asset reform and technological empowerment of the poor will be essential in193