Linguistic diversity, biodiversity and poverty: Global patterns and priorities

世界上许多最贫穷的人生活在语言/文化高度多样化和生物多样性高度多样化的地区。物种和语言的平行灭绝危机意味着，随着世界生物多样性的减少，文化和语言的多样性也在减少。在未来几十年里，大多数语言的使用者最可能消失，他们往往是处于经济阶梯底层的穷人中的穷人。例如，非洲拥有世界上约2092种语言（30.3%），约占世界贫困人口的三分之一，生物多样性水平很高。世界上大多数语言多样性的命运，以及文化多样性的命运，都掌握在少数最容易受到全球化压力影响的人手中。尽管这些关于语言多样性、生物多样性和贫困的全球分布的事实在语言学、生态学和发展经济学的各自学科中都是众所周知的，但它们之间的相互联系还没有被探索，更不用说被理解了。理解复杂的联系需要跨学科的方法。针对全球生物多样性保护与贫困之间相互联系的研究日益从将贫困和保护视为独立的政策领域转向认识到将社会经济数据纳入保护优先事项的必要性。与此同时，各种研究在不同尺度上考察了生物和语言/文化多样性高的地区之间的地理重叠。然而，到目前为止，还没有研究审查了将生物和文化/语言多样性与贫困指标联系起来的数据集之间的接口。这项研究将通过使用GIS（全球信息系统）制图来填补这一空白，将有关语言、物种和贫困指标的地理分布的数据集汇集到一个新的跨学科框架中，以确定全球“热点”，在这些热点中，受威胁的语言和物种在最大程度上与高度贫困重叠。由于通常需要在资源太少的情况下迅速完成许多工作，因此迫切需要确定现实的优先事项。记录和分析这些濒危语言和物种在最大程度上与高度贫困重叠的热点地区，将确定语言学家、环保主义者和发展机构采取协调行动的最关键领域。该分析将特别关注国际保护组织的34个热点地区和5个生物多样性高的荒野地区，这些地区是语言学家、发展社区和保护专家高度关注的战略地点。热点识别依赖于IUCN（国际自然保护联盟）濒危物种红色名录。这些地区特有物种（即在其他地方找不到的物种）的发生率异常高，并且至少失去了70%的自然栖息地。他们也是世界总人口的三分之一和世界语言的70%的家园，其中高达72%的语言是地方性的。在热点地区和生物多样性高的荒野地区，多达60%的语言由于使用人数少而面临灭绝的危险。有2769种语言被不足一万人使用；不到1000人使用740种语言。小语种的消失速度要比大语种快得多，因为使用小语种的人赖以谋生和传播文化和语言的资源受到资源开采、机械化农业的普及和不可持续发展项目等力量的破坏。为了保护语言和生物多样性，这些群体与其所居住的自然环境之间关系的重要性怎么强调都不为过。最终，保护行动的成功将取决于这些当地社区的参与。

Many of the world's poorest people live in areas of high linguistic/cultural diversity and high biodiversity. A parallel extinction crises in species and languages means that as the world is becoming less biologically diverse, it is simultaneously becoming culturally and linguistically less diverse as well. The speakers of most of the languages at greatest risk of disappearing over the next few decades are very often the poorest of the poor at the bottom of the economic ladder. Africa, for instance, is home to around 2,092 (30.3%) of the world's languages, about 1/3 of the world's poor, and high levels of biodiversity. The fate of most of the world's linguistic diversity, and by implication its cultural diversity, lies in the hands of a small number of people most vulnerable to pressures of globalization. Although such facts about the global distribution of linguistic diversity, biodiversity, and poverty are well known in the respective disciplines of linguistics, ecology and development economics, their interconnections have not been explored, much less understood. Understanding the complex linkages requires an interdisciplinary approach. Research addressing the interconnections between global biodiversity conservation and poverty has increasingly moved from treating poverty and conservation as separate policy domains to recognizing the need for integrating socioeconomic data into conservation priorities. Meanwhile, various studies have examined at various scales the geographic overlap between regions of high biological and linguistic/cultural diversity. To date, however, no research has examined the interface between datasets linking biological and cultural/linguistic diversity and poverty indicators. This research will fill that gap by using GIS (global information system) mapping to bring together datasets concerning the geographic distribution of languages, species and poverty indicators into a new interdisciplinary framework to identify global 'hotspots', where threatened languages and species overlap to the greatest extent with high levels of poverty. Because much typically needs to be done quickly with too few resources, setting realistic priorities is urgent. Documenting and analyzing these hotspots where endangered languages and species overlap to the greatest extent with high levels of poverty will identify the most critical areas for concerted action by linguists, environmentalists and development agencies. The analysis will focus in particular on Conservation International's 34 hotspots and 5 high biodiversity wilderness areas as strategic sites of high concern to linguists, as well as to the development community and conservation experts. Hotspot identification relies on the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species. These regions display exceptionally high occurrences of endemic species (i.e. those found nowhere else) and loss of at least 70% of natural habitat. They are also home to about 1/3 of the world's total population, and 70% of the world's languages, with up to 72% of them endemic. As many as 60% of all languages in the hotspots and high biodiversity wilderness areas are at risk of extinction due to small numbers of speakers. A total of 2769 languages are spoken by fewer than 10,000 speakers;740 are spoken by fewer than 1,000. Small languages can disappear much faster than larger ones as the resources on which their speakers depend for their livelihoods and transmission of their cultures and languages are damaged by forces such as resource extraction, the spread of mechanized agriculture and unsustainable development projects. The importance of the relationship between such groups and the natural environments they inhabit cannot be overstated for preservation of linguistic and biological diversity. Ultimately the success of conservation initiatives will depend on the engagement of these local communities.