Article on ILD from Terraviva, 2008

www.ipsterraviva.net World Conservation Congress, Barcelona, 5 - 14 October, 2008 Oct 8, 20083 II needneed YourYour Money…!Money…! Hilmi Toros Those were the questions a select group of ministers, NGO leaders, corporate chiefs, international organisations and the Since climate change is now a demonstrated fact, rather than a academia divulged into on Tuesday in a closed session at make-believe worst- selling fiction of a few years back, money the IUCN World Conservation Congress at Barcelona. IPS is needed to forestall it and cure its ills. Terraviva gained entry into the private powwow on the under- Lots of money - an estimated $250 billion a year is needed standing that participants will not be identified or quoted, so as for both adaptation and mitigation. It is a figure which is more to allow them to speak their minds freely more as individuals than ten times the available as well as the spent amount. than big wigs with long and impressive titles. Will it come? If yes, from where? And who to whose coffers? Continued on Back Page For full coverage of the IUCN World Conservation Congress, visit www.ipsterraviva.net By Ramesh Jaura Senior Correspondent Globalisation is killing languages Armies That Don‘t Kill? Future is drawing the fo- cus at the IUCN World Con- servation Congress. So, why not visualise a world in which the armies of the world do not kill for a regime change here, and for a wealth of resources there, but protect planet earth from man-made and natural disasters? Believe me. This is pre- By Zoltán Dujisin language, and the culture it repre- A keen audience asked whether cisely what a blue-ribbon sents, becomes endangered. linguists had any right to act on behalf panel of retired admirals When Victoria Huancho Icahuate, “Globalisation is leading to a of indigenous people to save their and generals from the U.S. from the Peruvian village of Mu- simplification of cultural diversity languages. “Most linguists doing this armed forces is doing. Cer- nichis, died in the late 1990s, she took and is responsible for a large part kind of work are not taking a mis- tainly not behind closed the Munichi language with her. By of indigenous languages becom- sionary approach,” replied Margaret doors as some sort of alche- 2010, half of the world’s 7,000 lan- ing disadvantaged socially and Florey from Australia’s Monash Uni- mists. They introduced their guages could share the same fate. In economically in relation to majority versity. “What we find is a complex formula to the global media 1990, the northern Pomo indigenous languages,” Loh said. “Language is of anger and dispossession. People the vehicle of cultures and we are gathered in Barcelona on language vanished from California’s themselves are showing a deep con- Lake County. In the same region and losing cultures.” cern about their languages.” Monday. year, the Shasta language also disap- “What’s happening with languages Through her experience in the The formula is simple. peared and left behind the Shasta has a lot to do with urbanisation and Eastern Indonesian Islands, she Climate change presents people speaking only English. what happens to people when they developed an indicator that looks a serious national security “The languages declining most abandon their traditional environ- at intergenerational transition and threat which could impact rapidly are those with fewer speak- ment,” added Luisa Maffi, the Presi- can show whether a language is Americans at home and ers,” Jonathan Loh, from the Zoo- dent of Terralingua, an international being threatened with the passing military operations abroad, logical Society of London told NGO. The last decades, and in gen- of time. heightening global tensions. participants at a seminar on World eral the last century, has witnessed Speaking to IPS, Florey said lan- A Dutch reservist flanked to Cultural Diversity. “Most languages a massive migration from rural to guages can’t be saved by institutional urban centers as industrialisation and intervention. Despite the importance say the formula applied to all have increased in the absolute num- ber of speakers, but overall diversity global economic restructuring forced of regional and national cooperation, the world’s militaries. has been reduced,” he said. Current- agricultural populations to adapt to a she claimed, allowing communities All that needs be done ly only 300 languages are spoken by new economic reality. to address the problem themselves is to integrate national-level more than a million people. Chinese, New generations who grew up in is a way out. “Family contacts are security consequences of Hindi, Spanish, English, Bengali, cities quickly lost interest in their na- the best way to get all generations climate change into national Arabic, Portuguese and Russian lead tive language and were more likely to involved, you don’t need experts to security and defence strate- in that order. feel attracted to leading international do this work,” she emphasised. gies. Before the U.S. ceases More than half of the world’s languages. “It’s not even a problem On the need to save dying lan- to be a super power, it should known languages are spoken by caused by the fact that people have guages, Loh and Maffi argued that commit to a national and less than 10,000 people, and 85 to learn new languages. There have both biological and cultural diversity per cent of the world languages are been countless multilingual tradi- are at risk, even as both are inextri- international role to avoid indigenous ones – the most vulner- tional societies, this is the rule rather cably linked. “There is a matter of significant disruption to glo- able. To give empirical weight to than the exception,” Maffi said in justice in the protection and per- bal security and stability. their claims, speakers presented reference to New Guinea, an island petuation of traditional knowledge,” indicators that help detect when a home to almost 1,000 languages. Maffi said. 2 Save a hippopotamus, and get development Julio Godoy Zanuzzi Back in 1998, the 17 farmer and hunting communities of Wechiau, Fernanda living along the Black Volta River in Ghana had neither schools nor drinking water or electricity. Now, ten years later, the nearly 10,000 people who constitute the Wechiau communities have them all. And that thanks to their decision, back then, of preserving the environment for the hippopotamus population living in the river. Chielinah Bandanaa, leader of the Wechiau community, is attending the IUCN World Conservation Congress to tell the story of his people and their efforts to preserve the Black Volta River hippopotamus’ habitat, and the economic benefits they have been reaping ever since, as consequence. Bandanaa: look what a hippo can do for you On behalf of the Wechiau communities, Bandanaa also received the Equator Prize, a prestigious interna- The hippopotamus sanctuary is also world, “are humbling and inspiring Islands, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, tional award given to outstanding local homeland to over 500 other animal spe- examples of what grassroots commu- Micronesia, Indonesia, Vanuatu, and efforts in the tropical countries, to re- cies, and to numerous medicinal plants, nities are doing along the equator, to Cambodia in the Asian Pacific ocean duce poverty through conservation and and is managed by a board representing preserve biodiversity and simulta- region, and from the Democratic the sustainable use of biodiversity. the Wechiau communities. neously alleviate poverty.” Republic of Congo, Zambia, Kenya, The prize is given by the Equator “Soon after the creation of the re- He explained that the Equator Senegal, Namibia, Tanzania, and Initiative, a coalition of civil society serve, we started to reap some gains Initiative’s work is based upon one Ghana in Africa. organisations, business, governments from the project, especially tourism,” simple fact: “The world’s greatest In Aranayaka, in the Kegalle and communities, which, together Bandanaa said. “With those gains, concentrations of biological wealth district in south-eastern Sri Lanka, with the United Nations, help build and the support of our development are found in the tropics, in countries Damayanthi Godamulla started in the capacity and raise the profile of partners from the industrialised world, that also have some of the highest 1996 the Community Development grassroots efforts in the environmental especially in Canada, we could then levels of poverty. The good news is Centre (CDC), with the aim of conservation. built schools, drill holes for drinking that communities are charting a path preserving traditional vegetables, water, and even installed solar panels towards sustainability, creatively using especially yams and tubers, threa- HIPPO-BENEFITS to tap sun into electricity.” biological resources for food, medici- tened by oblivion. “Since then, we Bandanaa told TerraViva that after Wechiau’s talented, needy children ne, shelter and improved livelihoods have rediscovered 58 varieties of the Wechiau communities decided to now even get scholarships that finance in ways that raise incomes and protect very nutritious, tasty yams and roots, preserve the hippopotamus habitat, their studies and keep them from having the environment.” that our ancestors used to grow, and they had also to adapt their way of to join the adults in work as it happens The Wechiau communities were which had almost disappeared from life. “We are hunting and farming in so many other communities. one of the 25 grassroots groups that the daily diet of our communities, people, and we did our hunting and Erika Harms, executive director were awarded the Equator Prize Achala Adikari, member of the CDC, farming in precisely that area, where of sustainable development at the for 2008. Other prize winners are told IPS. the hippopotamus lives,” he said. United Nations Foundation, said indigenous groups from Colombia, Adikari is attending the congress “Now, we have to hunt and farm the Wechiau communities, and a Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, and Ecuador to receive the Equator Prize on behalf somewhere else.” hundred similar projects around the in Latin America, from the Solomon of the CDC.

Load more