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Director
Luisa Maffi,
Ph.D., is co-founder and Director of Terralingua, and spearheads Terralingua's program of work. Luisa is a linguist, anthropologist, and ethnobiologist. She is one of the developers and proponents of the concept of biocultural diversity. In 1996, her interest in the relationships between language, knowledge, and the environment, and between linguistic, cultural, and biological diversity prompted her to co-found Terralingua and to launch its activities with the interdisciplinary conference "Endangered Languages, Endangered Knowledge, Endangered Environments" (Berkeley, California, U.S.A.). She was President of Terralingua from 1996 to 2006. Luisa conducted linguistic fieldwork in Somalia (1979-85), leading to the co-authoring of a dictionary of the Somali language, and anthropological fieldwork in Chiapas, Mexico (1988-93), leading to her doctoral dissertation on Tzeltal Maya concepts of health and illness (University of California, Berkeley, 1994). She is currently involved in Terralingua's field project with the Rarámuri people in the Sierra Tarahumara of northern Mexico. She has published extensively on Somali and Mayan linguistics, color categorization, ethnomedicine, traditional ecological knowledge, language maintenance and revitalization, indigenous peoples' linguistic and cultural rights, culture and conservation, and the relationships between linguistic, cultural, and biological diversity. Among her key publications are the edited book On Biocultural Diversity: Linking Language, Knowledge, and the Environment (Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001), the coauthored booklet Sharing a World of Difference: The Earth's Linguistic, Cultural, and Biological Diversity (UNESCO,WWF, and Terralingua, 2003), the coedited volume Ethnobotany and Conservation of Biocultural Diversity (New York Botanical Garden Press, 2004), the coedited issue no. 13 of IUCN's journal Policy Matters devoted to culture and conservation (2004), a review of the field of biocultural diversity published in Annual Review of Anthropology (2005), and the co-authored section on biodiversity and culture in the Global Environment Outlook: Environment for Development (GEO 4) Report (United Nations Environment Programme, 2007). The co-authored book "Global Sourcebook on Biocultural Diversity", the outcome of one of Terralingua's projects, is currently under review for publication.
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Collaborators
David
Harmon, M.S.,
is co-Principal Investigator on Terralingua's project "The
Index of Linguistic Diversity (ILD): An indicator of the status
and trends of linguistic diversity". Dave is Executive Director
of The George Wright Society, an association of parks and
protected areas professionals. He is responsible for overseeing
the Society's operations, including publishing The George
Wright Forum and planning the Society's biennial conferences.
A member of the GWS since 1985, Dave began working for the
organization in 1990 and served as deputy executive director
until being named executive director in 1998. He is also active in IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas, of which he has been a member since 1992. He has an A.B. degree (honors) from Grinnell College
(1980) in American History and an M.S. from the University
of Michigan School of Natural Resources (1985) in Natural
Resource Policy. He maintains an active research interest
in the relationship between biological and cultural diversity,
having co-founded the NGO Terralingua, which is devoted to
that subject. Dave is the author of In Light of Our Differences:
How Diversity in Nature and Culture Makes Us Human (Smithsonian
Institution Press, 2002) and co-edited (with Francis P. McManamon
and Dwight T. Pitcaithley) The Antiquities Act: A Century
of American Archaeology, Historic Preservation, and Nature
Conservation (University of Arizona Press, 2006), and
(with Allen D. Putney) The Full Value of Parks: From Economics
to the Intangible (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), and
(with Graeme L. Worboys) Managing Mountain Protected Areas:
Challenges and Responses for the 21st Century (Andromeda,
2004), among other books.
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Jonathan
Loh, M.Sc., is co-Principal
Investigator on Terralingua's project "The Index of Linguistic
Diversity (ILD): An indicator of the status and trends of
linguistic diversity". Jonathan studied Biology at Sussex
University and Environmental Technology at Imperial College,
University of London. He works on measuring and monitoring
trends in global environmental change, natural resource use
and biodiversity. He has worked since 1994 for WWF International,
and is an Honorary Research Associate at the Institute of
Zoology, part of the Zoological Society of London. Current
projects include writing and editing the Living Planet Report
for WWF, and developing a new indicator to measure the loss
of linguistic diversity worldwide, for Terralingua. Before
WWF, Jonathan worked for TRAFFIC International, investigating
wildlife trade in Taiwan, and as an environmental consultant
based in London and Hong Kong. He has lived and worked in
China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Switzerland, and carried out
numerous projects in developing countries in Asia, Africa
and Latin America.
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David
J. Rapport, Ph.D, FLS is Principal of EcoHealth Consulting and Co-Professor at the Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang. In 2007 he was Visiting Professor in the laboratory for landscape ecology at the University of Tokyo. David is Principal Investigator on Terralingua's project "Eco-Cultural Health in the Sierra Tarahumara". He is co-founder of the Program in Ecosystem Health in the Faculty of Medicine at The University of Western Ontario, where he held an honorary professorship (1998-2004). He spearheaded the development of state of environment reporting in Canada and the Pressure-State-Response (PSR) statistical system, which was adopted internationally as the basis for reporting on human activities and the environment. David was Founding President of the International Society for Ecosystem Health and Founding Editor-in-Chief of its journal, Ecosystem Health (published by Blackwell Science 1995-2001). He has served on the editorial boards of EcoHealth, Ecological Indicators, Ecological Economics and Aquatic Ecosystem Health Management. He has authored over 200 scientific papers and has co-edited several books, including: Ecosystem Health (Blackwell Science, 1998); Transdisciplinarity: reCreating Integrated Knowledge (McGill/Queens U. Press 2002); and Managing for Healthy Ecosystems (Lewis Publishers 2003).
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Ellen
Woodley, Ph.D., is Coordinator
of Terralingua's project "Global Source Book on Biocultural
Diversity". Ellen received her doctorate in Interdisciplinary
Rural Studies from the University of Guelph in Canada. She
is currently an independent consultant and has most recently
worked on the integration of culture in sustainable development,
researching the integration of Indigenous Peoples' cultural
practices and knowledge for food security for the UN Food
and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in collaboration with
the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC). She worked
in the south Pacific for over five years: in the Solomon Islands
working on cultural affirmation projects for the provincial
government, and in Papua New Guinea, where she was a botanist
and was involved in collecting medicinal plants for a handbook
used by medical outposts. She has also lived and worked in
West Africa, has worked with First Nation communities in Canada,
has conducted research in the high Arctic in Canada and in
Sulawesi, Indonesia. Research interests include the integration
of Indigenous Peoples' ecological knowledge in resource management.
Her dissertation was entitled "Local and Indigenous Ecological
Knowledge as an Emergent Property of Complexity: A Case Study
in the Solomon Islands . Publications of note are: Using
Multiple Knowledge Systems: Benefits and Challenges. Chapter
5. Multiscale Assessments Volume 4 of the Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment (eds. Capistrano, D., Samper, C.K., Lee, M.J
and Raudsepp-Hearne, C.) and Cultural indicators of Indigenous
Peoples' food and agro-ecological systems, for the UN
Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the International
Indian Treaty Council (IITC), (forthcoming 2007).
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Stanford
Zent, PhD,
is Principal Investigator on Terralingua's project "Methodology for Developing a TEK Vitality Index (TEKVI): An index of the status and trends of Traditional Environmental Knowledge". Stanford holds a degree in Anthropology from Columbia University. For the last 16 years he has worked as a Researcher and Professor in the Anthropology Department of the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research, Caracas, Venezuela. His research interests include ecological anthropology, ethnobiology, traditional environmental knowledge, biocultural conservation, and native cultures of lowland South America. He has conducted long-term fieldwork among the Piaroa, Jotï and Eñepa indigenous groups of the Venezuelan tropical forest since 1984.
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Team Members- Sierra Project
Michael Nickels is a permaculture teacher and ecoforester. He owns
and operates a 40-acre organic farm and forest on Salt Spring Island,
B.C., where he teaches several students each year in the practice of
sustainability and how to run a business that is both profitable and
ecologically sound. Over the last 20 years Michael has worked
extensively in East and Southern Africa, Central America, China and
Australia setting up tree nurseries and permaculture projects to help
local people achieve greater food security. Dryland restoration has
been a major focus, where water harvesting techniques ensure enough
water to reverse unusable land back to fertility, diversity and
productivity. Michael has also published a simple step-by-step manual
on water harvesting for small-scale farms . Michael has collaborated with Terralingua on the Sierra Tarahumara project since 2007, focusing on revegetation and home gardens..
Carla Paciotto, Ed.D., is currently an associate professor at Western Illinois University, where she teaches about culture, language and education in the contexts of indigenous and immigrant populations. Her research centers on language maintenance and shift and language education policy and planning, focusing on the role of native language instruction in the revitalization of endangered and lesser used languages. Her studies span from Mexico to the U.S., Italy and Slovenia. Her dissertation, “Bilingual Education for Chihuahua's Tarahumara Children: A Study of the Contexts of an Emerging Program,” won the National Association of Bilingual Education Dissertation Award and the Italian Award for Studies Related to Bilingualism and Multilingualism and was published in in the volume Il bilinguismo tra conservazione e minaccia. Esempi e presupposti per interventi di politica linguistica e di educazione bilingue(Franco Angeli 2004). She has recently contributed articles to the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism and Language Policy. Carla has collaborated with Terralingua on the Sierra Tarahumara project since 2007, with a focus on bilingual education for Rarámuri community,
particularly women and children.
Victoria E. H. Lee, M.D., is a family physician and is completing her residency in Community Medicine at the University of Toronto, Canada. She obtained her first degree in Honors Biology and Religious Studies at McMaster University, Canada, and received her M.D. degree from the University of Western Ontario (UWO), Canada. At UWO, she took courses in the Ecosystem Health Program, which awakened her interest in the connections between ecosystem health and human health and dedication to the advancement of this approach. As the International Public Health Director for the International Federation of Medical Students (IFMSA), Victoria was a student leader in promoting ecosystem health on national and international levels. She founded student interest groups in ecosystem health, served as the director of international ecosystem health workshops, has been the chief-coordinator of national and international ecosystem health-directed campaigns and meetings, and recently debriefed the Canadian Senate Committee on health impacts of the Environmental Protection Act. Victoria continues to mentor students on ecosystem health, conducts research in community education and comparative health systems, and works to implement ecosystem health principles in professional curricula and through her active collaboration with international organizations such as IFMSA, IDRC, and UNEP. She currently serves as an executive board member of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. She has collaborated with Terralingua on the Sierra Tarahumara project since 2004, focusing on the promotion of public health, hygiene, and sanitation in Rarámuri and Mestizo communities, with a special focus on women.
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Administration
Tania Aguila has a strong background in programs and events coordinating as well as administration. Tania came to Terralingua after having worked in one of Canada’s largest Peace Conferences (World Peace Forum 2006) where over 5 thousand people from all over the world attended. She is a passionate and dedicated woman and also holds a degree in Anthropology and Latin America Studies from Simon Fraser University.
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Graphic Design and Web Development
Ortixia Dilts
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