The Language of the Environment: A Comparative Environmental Thesaurus

Based on the emerging realization that protecting and restoring biodiversity and maintaining and revitalizing cultural diversity and cultural vitality are intimately, indeed inextricably, interrelated, the book makes the case for an integrated biocultural approach to sustaining biodiversity and human cultures. The core of the book is a review and analysis of 45 projects from all over the world that exemplify this new approach to conservation. In a diversity of ways, each project recognizes the fundamental links between local languages, ecological knowledge, cultural practices, and biodiversity and applies this recognition to the design of sustainable solutions to environmental and social problems. Drawing from the projects, the book examines the factors that foster or threaten the integrated conservation of biological and cultural diversity and offers lessons learned and recommendations for how to further develop and strengthen a biocultural approach to conservation. Biocultural Diversity Conservation is a comprehensive source of information for students, researchers, professionals, policy makers, international agencies, NGOs, and community organizations. It has been used as a textbook as well as a source of inspiration for advocacy and on-the-ground projects. Terralingua's Sourcebook project was funded by The Christensen Fund.