round table forum

Terralingua is pleased to announce that a Discussion Forum, designed for all of you who have contributed information on projects for the Global Source Book on Biocultural Diversity (GSB), is now up and running. Be sure to visit the GSBBCD Forum. Background Information Once you have successfully logged in to the Terralingua Discussion Forum, you will see a list of current Topics.  Click on a topic to read the discussion, and click the Add Reply button to contribute.  To start a new Topic, click the New Topic button. If you reply to a topic or post a new one, you will automatically be subscribed to the topic thread, which simply means that you will receive an email every time someone responds to your post.  If you do not wish to be notified, deselect the "Notify me..." checkbox in the Options area.  If you want to subscribe to a thread (topic) even though you have not contributed, you can click the "Subscribe to this thread" link just above the Subject on the right-hand side. The forum will be restricted to GSB contributors and Terralingua collaborators, Board members, and advisory panel members. Any others who would like to participate in the forum should first contact either Luisa Maffi ( maffi@terralingua.org ) or Ellen Woodley ( tegwood@albedo.net ), who will act as moderators of the forum. The GSB has now compiled information on 40 diverse projects that are bioculturally oriented, in that they work towards the integrated conservation of cultures and biodiversity. We have learned a lot and shared the information with all of you through the progress report that we posted on our website [http://www.terralingua.org/GSBBCD]. Our analysis of the projects is ongoing, and we are working to finalize plans for publication of the results in partnership with World Conservation Union's (IUCN) Culture and Conservation Working Group, which has a specific interest in the links between culture and conservation. We will of course let you know as soon as those plans take shape. Meanwhile, we would like to foster a ìcommunity of practiceî among GSB contributors via the discussion forum. Through this conversation, we hope to deepen our collective understanding of the nature of integrated biocultural conservation projects. Also, this cross-fertilization of ideas should contribute to the viability and success of everyone's individual projects. Based on the project that you are involved in, do you think that integrated, bioculturally oriented conservation is more effective in achieving its goals than conservation that targets either biodiversity only or cultures (practices, knowledge, beliefs, and languages) only? If so, why? If not, why not? Please also state the basis for your comparison. If so, how does your project measure its success in accomplishing these integrated goals of cultural affirmation and/or language revitalization and biodiversity conservation? The discussion will be enhanced if you state how you make the comparison ñ for example, at one time, was the project based on a non-integrated approach? Or, can you specifically compare your project with a non-integrated one? In addition, we feel it is very important to hear from you how you measure the ìsuccessî of your project in terms of meeting the project's goals of taking the biocultural approach to conservation. To make your point on this big question, we would like you to join the discussion forum, identify yourself and what project you are affiliated with, and respond as many times as you feel is necessary, keeping in mind that people will respond to what you have posted. When you log on to the ongoing discussion forum, you will see that we have launched the discussion with the question above. As the discussion develops, more specific issues may arise, but we feel that it's worth kicking it off with this fundamental question. We look forward to your insights on this matter! Cordially, Luisa Maffi and Ellen Woodley We are also working on establishing a Round Table open to all Terralingua members and supporters. Please visit this page again for updates on this general discussion forum.