The following article, written by Isabella Mazzei, is part of a series of reflections on the upcoming International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) World Conservation Congress to be held in Abu Dhabi, October 2025. The series examines proposed resolutions by the Global Center for Environmental Legal Studies (GCELS) at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University on a variety of environmental issues to be decided at the Congress. The articles in this series were developed as a part of Professor Achinthi Vithanage’s guided research program for Pace | Haub Environmental Law students.
The countdown has begun. By the year 2100, between 50% and 95% of the world’s Indigenous languages are expected to vanish, taking with them irreplaceable ecological knowledge that has sustained the Earth’s most biodiverse regions for generations.
The Silent Crisis
The statistics are sobering: of the world’s 7,168 languages, over 4,000 are Indigenous. Yet experts predict that many of these languages could become extinct or severely endangered by 2100. Indigenous Peoples, while comprising less than 6% of the global population, serve as stewards for much of the world’s linguistic and ecological diversity. Their territories frequently overlap with the planet’s most biodiverse regions, creating a crucial intersection between language preservation and conservation efforts.
More Than Just Words
Indigenous languages are vessels of ecological knowledge, containing concepts and relationships with the natural world that often have no direct translation in other languages. When a language disappears, we lose irreplaceable information about local ecosystems, species interactions, and sustainable resource management practices. For example, the endangered Hawaiian language, ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, encodes detailed knowledge about the lifecycle of the indigenous striped mullet (mugil cephalus). Different names for this culturally important fish reflect its size, seasonal patterns, and migration behaviors. This information has guided sustainable fishing practices for generations of “lawaiʻa pono,” translated to “righteous fishers.”
This type of precise environmental understanding, embedded within language itself, represents millennia of observation and adaptation to local environments.
The IUCN’s Step Forward
The proposed motion acknowledges that despite previous IUCN resolutions supporting Indigenous Peoples’ rights, such as “Implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples” and “Recognising and supporting indigenous peoples’ and local communities” rights and roles in conservation” among others, there hasn’t been sufficient focus specifically on language.
Key actions outlined include:
- Establishing an IUCN task force dedicated to protecting and promoting Indigenous languages, ensuring communities have access to communication and knowledge-sharing technologies, if they wish to use them.
- Encouraging the formal recognition of Indigenous languages in state legal frameworks and fostering government–community cooperation to advance language preservation.
- Supporting Indigenous-led language initiatives by creating targeted funding and grant programs.
- Integrating Indigenous naming systems for species and ecosystems into conservation programs to complement scientific taxonomy.
- Collaborating with organizations like UNESCO and IPBES to ensure Indigenous knowledge is valued equally alongside scientific research.
- Developing accessible visual communication tools to make conservation science more inclusive.
- Monitoring Indigenous language loss and reporting regularly to the IUCN.
This motion aligns with global frameworks, including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, ILO Convention No. 169, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Nagoya Protocol, and the UN Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022–2032).
The consolidation of three proposals submitted by the Center for Environmental Legal Studies, the International Association for Falconry and Conservation of Birds of Prey, and the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle resulted in this single motion, which garnered the support of twenty-six co-sponsors.
Why This Matters for Conservation
The preservation of Indigenous languages directly strengthens biodiversity conservation in several ways:
- Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Indigenous languages contain sophisticated taxonomies and conceptual frameworks for understanding local ecosystems that complement scientific approaches to conservation.
- Sustainable Management Practices: Cultural practices embedded in language often reflect generations of sustainable resource management that has maintained biodiversity in Indigenous territories.
- Holistic Understanding: Many Indigenous languages reflect worldviews that don’t separate humans from nature, promoting more integrated approaches to ecosystem health.
- Climate Resilience: Indigenous knowledge systems often include historical observations about environmental changes and adaptation strategies that are increasingly valuable for climate resilience planning.
A Call to Action
As the final discussions regarding this motion are to be held at the IUCN Congress, the conservation community has an opportunity to take a more holistic understanding of biodiversity protection, one that recognizes cultural and linguistic diversity as inseparable from ecological diversity.
The coming years represent a critical window for intervention before many more Indigenous languages are lost. By supporting this motion and its implementation, conservationists can help ensure that the valuable ecological knowledge embedded in these languages continues to inform our understanding of biodiversity and the envrionement and guide sustainable practices for generations to come.
The fate of our planet’s biodiversity and the fate of Indigenous languages are intertwined. Protecting one requires protecting the other.
Link to the motion: Recognizing the Importance of Indigenous Languages, Knowledge, and Cultural Heritage in Biodiversity Conservation
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