Terralingua
Annual Report
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Terralingua Annual Report, 2006
2006 marked Terralingua's tenth anniversary as an organization, and it was a momentous year for us, in which we saw our star rise in more ways than one. We successfully continued our ongoing project work, obtained generous support for and initiated two new projects, and advanced our plans for developing two more. We significantly consolidated our active partnerships with a number of other international organizations, and saw a growing demand for our expertise as well as our products and services. And, just as the year was drawing to a close, we received the totally unexpected and truly extraordinary news that Terralingua has been made the main beneficiary of a major bequest, given to us in full and unrestricted support of our mission!
This last piece of news inevitably takes front page. Dr. Aldon Roat , a long-time friend and supporter of Terralingua, passed away in September 2006, having bequeathed the best part of his estate to the organization with whose mission he most identified, and whose growth he had closely followed and helped over a number of years. Al's legacy to Terralingua is a deeply moving and humbling testament to the faith and trust he had in us, and marks a fundamental turning point in the life of our organization. If we felt rewarded and energized in 2001, when we obtained our first grant, entirely unsolicited, from the Ford Foundation—the first turning point in our existence, when we moved from a tiny volunteer organization to a funded one capable of developing a full program of work and operating in the international arena—it is hard to even find the words to describe how thrilled we are at this new juncture. Al's munificent gesture moves us into a completely new realm, in which we will be able to reach out with our work from a position of greatly enhanced strength and stability. His memory will be with us forever.
We certainly had no inkling of what was in store for us as 2006 rolled in, but it was a positive year throughout. Focusing on our projects, here is what we accomplished in 2006:
1. Global Source Book on Biocultural Diversity
We virtually completed the write-up of our Global Source Book on Biocultural Diversity (GSB), which has support from The Christensen Fund . We conceived the GSB as a tool to help promote and develop the biocultural diversity approach, by providing this field with its very first global source of information on biocultural projects, programs, and initiatives, and by building a community of practice in biocultural diversity. The GSB, which is co-authored by Luisa Maffi and Ellen Woodley with contributions by Alan Hedley , is meant as an instrument for generating public awareness and stimulating the development of bioculturally-oriented policies. It aims to serve local communities, non-governmental organizations, governmental agencies, policy makers, researchers, schools, and the general public, as well as funding agencies and the media. The GSB now includes 47 projects from all over the world, which we describe and analyze in terms of their efforts to integrate the conservation of biodiversity and cultural and linguistic diversity. We also outline lessons learned and recommendations, and place the conservation of biocultural diversity within the broader context of the sustainability of life on earth. In late 2006, we made significant advances concerning sponsorship of the GSB publication by a major international organization, through which this piece of work would be disseminated extensively at the international level. We expect completion of the write-up and publication in 2007. We also aim to foster a “community of practice” among GSB contributors through a discussion forum on our website and through an interactive presentation of GSB materials on our website.
2. Global Indicators of the Status and Trends of Linguistic Diversity and Traditional Knowledge
In June, we received a new grant for 2006-2008 from The Christensen Fund , in support of our project to develop two innovative indicators: an Index of Linguistic Diversity (ILD), being developed by Dave Harmon and Jonathan Loh , and a Traditional Environmental Knowledge Vitality Index (TEKVI), being developed by Stanford Zent . These indicators aim to address the dearth of cultural indicators that can be used along with indicators of biodiversity to gauge the state and trends of biocultural diversity. This dearth has often been noted in relation to major assessments of the global environment. Terralingua's earlier work on the Index of Biocultural Diversity (IBCD) sought to address this gap. However, the IBCD only provided a “snapshot” of the present state of biocultural diversity. The ILD and TEKVI will develop the methodology and gather the time-series data to address a key question in the field of biocultural diversity: What is really happening with the world's cultural diversity (including languages and traditional knowledge)? Is it indeed in decline, and, if so, how fast? Anecdotal evidence suggests that this is the case, but reliable quantitative information is needed. Combined with time-series data on biodiversity, these indicators will also tell us whether trends in cultural diversity parallel trends in biodiversity.
This information is essential for guiding action to protect, maintain and restore the resilience of both cultures and biodiversity. It will be particularly significant in relation to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)'s Article 8(j) on the protection of traditional knowledge relevant for the conservation of biodiversity and to its 2010 Target for countering the global loss of biodiversity. Terralingua is participating in the 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership (2010 BIP), coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme's World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), in collaboration with the CBD. Toward the end of 2005, we received a contract from UNEP-WCMC to develop templates for the ILD and the TEKVI. We delivered the templates in February 2006. A funding proposal for the 2010 BIP, submitted by UNEP-WCMC to the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in March 2006 was approved later in the year. We are awaiting news from WCMC as to additional support for our indicators from the GEF grant. Also with support from WCMC, Luisa Maffi traveled to the 4 th meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-Ended Inter-Sessional Working Group on Article 8(j) and Related Provisions of the Convention on Biological Diversity , held in Granada , Spain , in January 2006. The development of the CBD's 2010 Indicators was one of the items on this meeting's agenda, and Maffi was able to present and advocate for Terralingua's indicators in this context, by sponsoring a side event during the Working Group's proceedings.
Luisa Maffi gave an invited presentation on the IBCD and ILD at an on-line “learning event” on cultural indicators organized by the International Institute for Sustainable Development in June. This presentation raised considerable interest and led to plans for a presentation on the TEKVI at a later IISD learning event in 2007.
3. Eco-Cultural Health in the Sierra Tarahumara
Also in June, The Christensen Fund awarded us another 2006-2008 grant, in support of our Eco-Cultural Health in the Sierra Tarahumara project, in which we seek to apply our biocultural approach to on-the ground action. The project also received support from Canada 's International Research Development Centre . This is a collaborative project with the Rarámuri people of the Sierra Tarahumara of northern Mexico , directed toward restoring eco-cultural health—that is vitality and resilience in both natural and cultural systems—in their communities. In our previous interactions with the Rarámuri, they emphasized the importance of raising community awareness about the links between the health of the land, their own physical, psychological, and spiritual health and well being, and the sustainability of their culture. They stressed the need for both capacity building and education in this connection. In response, we conceived a project to support and encourage the Rarámuri in seeking and adopting solutions to their environmental and social problems that are sustainable and in keeping with their own cultural traditions.
The project, directed by David Rapport in collaboration with Luisa Maffi , places emphasis on the connectivity among maintaining a healthy ecosystem, personal health, sustainable livelihoods, and strong cultural traditions. It is designed to involve all interested members of the community, from the very young to the elders, in a cooperative effort to recover their landscape, foster resilience of their aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and better integrate their subsistence agricultural practices. The initial goals are: to collaboratively develop measures of healthy eco-cultural ecosystems that are readily accessible to community members of all ages—simple measures by which the community can assess their progress towards achieving eco-cultural health; to target priority actions towards restoring their ecosystems (both terrestrial and aquatic) and strengthening relevant cultural traditions; to undertake small-scale restoration initiatives and evaluate their success in terms of agreed-upon measures; and to establish the concepts of sustainability and eco-cultural health as mainstays of community education in the area. The long-term goal is to entrain a community participatory process that results in constant vigilance and enhancement of their eco-cultural health.
Two field trips to the Sierra Tarahumara took place in the second half of 2006. In September, Rapport and Maffi traveled to the Sierra to meet with Rarámuri contacts in the area of Norogachi and begin to discuss the details of project implementation. Visits to several remote communities led to the identification of the community of Tuchéachi as the likely location for initial project activities. In November, Rapport and Maffi, along with colleagues John Howard , Victoria Lee , and Lisa Mu , experts in the links between ecosystem health and human health, carried out an extended visit to Tuchéachi. Meetings with community members and participation in traditional ceremonies and festivities resulted both in better orienting our approach and in cementing the community's interest in collaborating on the project. An intercultural workshop in Tuchéachi is planned for February 2007, with the participation of community members selected by the local authorities and, on our side, experts in issues of water quality and watershed management and restoration.
4. Symposium “Conserving Biocultural Diversity”
Following up on initial plans started in 2005, Luisa Maffi and Ken MacDonald (co-chair of the Theme on Culture and Conservation [TCC] of IUCN's Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy [CEESP]) began discussions with Eleanor Sterling of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH)'s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation concerning collaboration on a conference on biocultural diversity. Agreement was reached for AMNH to host this event in the spring of 2008, in the context of its prestigious annual symposium series. The goal of the Symposium “Conserving Biocultural Diversity” , which will be co-organized by AMNH, IUCN/CEESP/TCC, and Terralingua, will be to review the state of knowledge in the field of biocultural diversity; the practice of application of this approach, with special attention to its relevance for conservation and development projects; and to elaborate policy recommendations, targeting in particular the World Conservation Congress , to be held in the fall of 2008. This symposium will follow up and build on the 1996 conference “Endangered Languages, Endangered Knowledge, Endangered Environments” organized by Terralingua as its first official activity. The symposium will see the participation of researchers, practitioners, and stewards of biocultural diversity. It will be complemented by an exhibit of maps of biocultural diversity produced by Terralingua Board member and collaborator Rick Stepp of the University of Florida , and by program of cultural and artistic events with a biocultural theme. Several publications are expected to result from the symposium. Fundraising efforts are underway to support the symposium.
5. Atlas of Biocultural Diversity
Also in collaboration with Rick Stepp , we are seeking to develop and publish an Atlas of Biocultural Diversity . The Atlas is meant to bring together the results of previous GIS (Global Information Systems) research carried out by Terralingua and the more recent research conducted by Stepp and his students in the GIS laboratory of the University of Florida with support from The Christensen Fund, along with relevant contributions from our Indicators project and case studies from the Source Book project. The Atlas, to be produced as a high quality illustrated volume with abundant global and regional mappings and explanatory text, is meant as a valuable reference tool for researchers, while also serving to introduce the public to the field of biocultural diversity. The main goals in the development of the Atlas are to 1) conclusively demonstrate on a global scale the interrelationships between biological and cultural diversity, and 2) explore the reasons why this relationship occurs and the factors involved in both change and persistence of biocultural diversity. Especially at the regional level, the Atlas will identify patterns using a range of data from biodiversity inventories to socio-economic analyses, in order to address hypotheses regarding the patterns of biocultural diversity. In particular, the Atlas will explore the role of globalization, population growth, and land use/land cover change on the state of biocultural diversity. Data and analyses from Terralingua's indicators and “snapshots” from the Biocultural projects surveyed in the Source Book will complement the mappings. Apart from the theoretical aspects of this project, there are important applied aspects as well. Complex phenomena such as biocultural diversity can be made more accessible to a broad audience by the development of well-designed and easily understood visual representations such as maps. Biocultural diversity maps can serve as invaluable tools for stakeholders, educators and policymakers.
In this connection, we have been exploring sponsorship for this project from major international organizations. In the course of 2006 we made significant advances toward garnering this sponsorship, and we expect to finalize arrangements in early 2007.
6. Other Activities
Other activities conducted during 2006 that fostered TL's goals included:
• Biodiversity and Culture in UNEP's GEO-4 Report : Luisa Maffi and Ellen Woodley concluded their work, initiated in 2005, as co-lead authors of a section on Biodiversity and Culture in the Biodiversity chapter of UNEP 's flagship Global Environment Outlook (GEO) report (4 th edition, GEO-4, forthcoming 2008). Issues of biodiversity and culture are included for the first time in the GEO report. The first draft was completed during an authors' meeting in March at UNEP's headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, in which Maffi and Woodley participated. Maffi also participated in a North American regional consultation on GEO-4 in Ottawa, Canada in June. The volume went through two review cycles and is scheduled for publication in 2007.
• Outreach in British Columbia, Canada: In April, Luisa Maffi was an invited participant in the Symposium “Livelihoods and Ecosystems: Dealing with Complexity in Rural Development and Agriculture” , held at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) in Prince George, and an invited speaker in the Colloquium “B.C.'s Crisis in a Global Context: International Perspectives of the Mountain Pine Beetle Epidemic” , also at UNBC. On this occasion, she was able to meet with representatives of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council of Northern British Columbia, in view of possible collaboration on issues of cultural and social sustainability under environmental stress caused by the massive forest die-out due to a large-scale mountain pine beetle infestation. Contact with the Tribal Council is ongoing.
• Contribution to ITU/UNESCO Symposium: Also in April, Terralingua submitted an official statement in view of the ITU/UNESCO Global Symposium “Promoting the Multilingual Internet” , to be held in Geneva, 9-11 May 2006. Our statement the importance of linguistic diversity as one of the fundamental manifestations of the diversity of life, and of each language as a repository of values, beliefs, knowledge, and practices and as providing its speakers with a sense of continuity with the past and options for the future. On this basis, the statement advocated for support for the world's languages in all contexts, including the internet. It pointed to the flawed nature of arguments about the costs of multilingualism, which are computed without taking account of the high costs of individual and social disruption and dislocation that often arise when people, both children and adults, are forced to function poorly in a language not their own instead of being provided all the means they need to be or become fully functional multilinguals.
• COMPAS/IUCN Conference and contacts with IUCN and other organizations in Geneva: In early October, Luisa Maffi traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, as an invited participant and speaker in the conference “ Endogenous Development and Bio-Cultural Diversity: Interplay of worldviews, globalisation and locality” , organized by the COMPAS network in collaboration with IUCN . The conference resulted in the establishment of a larger network between COMPAS and other organizations, including Terralingua. During that stay in Geneva, Maffi also had the opportunity to meet with several representatives of IUCN- The World Conservation Union, of which Terralingua is a member, to foster our collaboration with them on issues of biocultural diversity and make plans for our participation in the World Conservation Congress in 2008. At the conference, Maffi made contact with representatives of the Gaia Foundation (UK), whose goals and work are very close to Terralingua's, contact that we continue to pursue in view of collaboration and joint efforts.
• Slow Food and Terra Madre: In late October, Luisa Maffi traveled to Torino, Italy, as an invited speaker on the panel “ Human evolution and the Earth's biodiversity” at the Slow Food conference “Terra Madre” . The panel drew a large audience and led to an interview on Rai3, one of Italy's national radio programs. Another goal of the invitation from Slow Food was for Terralingua to become a member of a network of academic and other institutions that share the goals of Slow Food. We signed an MoU with Slow Food in this connection, and our participation in the conference and business meetings led to the invitation for Luisa Maffi and David Rapport to teach a short course on eco-cultural health at Slow Food's University of Gastronomic Sciences during the 2007-2008 academic year.
• Genova Festival of Science: From Torino, Luisa Maffi traveled to Genova, Italy, in early November to attend the 2006 edition of the Festival of Science , where she had been an invited speaker in 2005. Renewing contact with the Festival organizers yielded an invitation to submit a proposal for a panel for the 2007 Festival , on the topic of integrative approaches, such as biocultural diversity, ecosystem health, and the organic philosophy of Slow Food. The proposal was to be submitted in January 2007.
7. Organizational Development
In 2006, Terralingua undertook a number of institutional changes:
• The Board established several committees formed by Board members, to address some of the key issues in the further development of Terralingua: Governance Committee, Membership Committee, Fundraising Committee, Public Outreach Committee, Indigenous Outreach Committee, Website Committee, Education Committee . Each committee was given a brief and undertook its activities during the year, reporting to the full Board on progress.
• In particular, the Governance Committee was charged of developing recommendations for reforming the institutional structure of Terralingua, with the main goal of separating the governance function of the Board from executive functions, and to identify the appropriate by-law changes needed to accomplish this reform. The Committee's main recommendations were: 1) Renaming the Board of Directors “Board of Governors” and replacing the office of President with that of Chair of the Board , with a 1-year rotating Vice-Chair and a Secretary and a Treasurer as the other officers; 2) Instituting a paid staff position of Director responding to the Board, who would act as Terralingua's spokesperson and be in charge of Terralingua's day-to-day operations, program of work, and fundraising; 3) Constituting a permanent Executive Committee composed of the officers of the Board and functioning as liaison between the Board and the Director. The Board agreed with the Committee's recommendations, and our by-laws were amended accordingly.
• Later in the year, a Nominations Committee was struck to put together a slate of candidates for the new Board positions created by this institutional reform and to select a Director . As Luisa Maffi 's maximum term in office as President would expire at the end of 2006, Maffi indicated her intent to not seek re-election as a Board member. The Board thanked for her service and invited her to consider a candidacy as Director. Negotiations with the Nominations Committee led Maffi to accept this invitation and offer her candidacy as Director. At its year-end annual meeting, the Board issued an official offer to Luisa Maffi for the position of Director, which Maffi later accepted pending finalization of a contract. Terralingua.
• Annual elections held at the same Board meeting yielded the following composition for the Board of Governors to take office on January 1, 2007:
Sheri Tatsch, Chair (2007-9)
E. Annamalai , Vice-Chair (2007-8)
Alan Hedley, Secretary & Treasurer (2006-8)
Susan Fassberg, Director (2006-8)
Rauna Kuokkanen, Director (2005-7)
John Richard Stepp, Director (2005-7)
Several Governor-at-Large vacancies were to be filled in 2007, after the Nominations Committee would have conducted a careful search for appropriate candidates.
Terralingua Financial Report, 2006
Revenue |
|
Contributions, gifts, grants & contracts |
225,702 |
Interest |
437 |
Total revenue |
$226,139 |
|
|
Expenses |
|
Salaries & benefits |
34,200 |
Professional fees; consultants |
55,986 |
Utilities |
1,528 |
Supplies |
545 |
Printing, postage & shipping |
497 |
Research materials, dues & subscriptions |
763 |
Travel |
9,883 |
Insurance |
1,488 |
Bank & payroll fees |
496 |
Miscellaneous |
41 |
Total expenses |
$105,427 |
|
|
Change in net assets, 2006 |
$120,712 |
|
|
Net assets as of 1 January 2006 |
37,694 |
Change in net assets, 2006 |
120,712 |
Net assets as of 31 December 2006 |
$158,406 |
