Focal Area: Status of traditional knowledge, innovations and practices

Headline Indictor: Status and trends of linguistic diversity and numbers of speakers of indigenous languages

Key Indicator Partner:      

Data available: Regional/national time series

Development Status: Methodology under review

There is a fundamental linkage between language and traditional knowledge related to biodiversity. Local and indigenous communities have elaborated complex classification systems for the natural world, reflecting a deep understanding of local flora, fauna, ecological relations and ecosystem dynamics. More than a third of the world’s 

languages are in danger of disappearing before the end of the century and as these languages go extinct there will be an irrecoverable loss of biodiversity knowledge. Information on status and trends of numbers of speakers of indigenous languages may therefore be used as a proxy for measuring trends in the status of traditional knowledge, innovations and practices.

Given the complexity of data collection on numbers of speakers of indigenous languages and the disparity among the methodologies used in different countries, the indicator will initially be applicable at the national level only. In the long term, however, building upon the guidelines on language data collection that UNESCO is currently developing, it will be possible to build up a global indicator on this matter.  

Indigenous languages are the vehicles of traditional knowledge about biodiversity and environment, and about sustainable management of natural resources. An increase in the number of extinct languages would represent an irrecoverable loss of biodiversity related knowledge which in turn may have negative implications for its maintenance and protection. Increases in the number of threatened languages (vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered) would indicate greater pressures upon languages which may lead to their extinction. A decline in the number of threatened languages would indicate language preservation which will help to safeguard biodiversity knowledge.

Further development of consistent and homogenous language data collection methodologies at the global scale will permit the international comparison of language data, which will facilitate the task of constructing an indicator on numbers of speakers of indigenous languages at the global scale. 

UNESCO will continue data collection and analyses in the coming years with a view to elaborating, testing and promoting at the international and national level a Linguistic Vitality Index. It is essential to advocate for a harmonization of language data collection methodologies across the world in order to constitute a usable global dataset and time-series on indigenous languages.