Language Matters | Why language loss in indigenous communities hurts biodiversity conservation
Ecosystem loss and language erosion often occur in tandem. Thankfully, Cop30 marked an unprecedented effort to elevate indigenous voices
Cop30, the 30th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (Cop) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the 1992 landmark international treaty and parent treaty to the 2015 Paris Agreement, began on November 10 and was scheduled to end on November 21.
Indigenous peoples, numbering some 476 million worldwide, comprise just 6 per cent of the global population – but almost 40 per cent of the planet’s intact forests are located in indigenous territories. Indigenous peoples are thus stewards of hundreds of millions of hectares of land, safeguarding much of the world’s biodiversity.
Regions of great endemic biodiversity that contain at least 1,500 species of vascular plants found nowhere else on Earth, but which have also lost at least 70 per cent of their primary native vegetation – usually because of human activities and influences – are known as “biodiversity hotspots”.
