What Is “Biocultural Diversity”?

Indicators of Biocultural Diversity

Presentation by Luisa Maffifor the Canadian Sustainability Indicators Network

8 June, 2006

What Is “Biocultural Diversity”?

Interrelationship of all forms of the diversity of life:

•Biological

•Cultural

•Linguistic

Global Overlaps Between Biological and Cultural Diversity

Worldwide, biological diversity (represented by plant diversity) and cultural diversity (represented by language diversity) strongly overlap.

Why Measure Biocultural Diversity?

•From correlations to causation•Raise profile of and support for BCD•Guide strategic decision-making

Index of Biocultural Diversity (IBCD)

Jonathan Loh and David Harmon

• Aggregates measures of biodiversity and cultural diversity

• State indicator• National (country) level• Snapshot

Components of the IBCDCultural diversity (CD) indicators:

• number of languages (LD)• number of ethnic groups (ED)• number of religions (RD)

Biodiversity (BD) indicators:• number of bird and mammal species (MD)• number of plant species (PD)

Data sources

• Ethnologue 14th edition (Grimes 2000): No. of languages

• World Christian Encyclopaedia (Barrett et al. 2001): No. of religions; No. of ethnic groups

• Global Biodiversity (Groombridge and Jenkins 2002): No. of bird and mammal species; No. of plant species

How the IBCD is calculated

• CD = (LD + RD + ED)/3• BD = (MD + PD)/2• IBCD = (CD + BD)/2

How scores for the 5 diversity indicators are calculated

Using Language Diversity (LD) as an example:

LD = log of the number of languages spoken in a given country (Li) divided by the log of the total number of languages spoken in the world (Lworld).

LD = log Li / log Lworld

Sample LD calculation:Papua New Guinea

PNG has 833 languages. The log of 862 is 2.92.

The world has (approximately) 6800 languages. The log of 6800 is 3.83.

Therefore, PNG’s LD score is:2.92 / 3.83 = 0.76

The global LD score is, by definition, 1.00:3.83 / 3.83 = 1.00

LD = log Li/log Lworld.

LD: from highest to lowest

Country/Territory

No. languages spoken (L) Log L

LD (log Li/log Lworld)

World 6,800 3.83 1.00Papua New Guinea (highest) 833 2.92 0.76

Mali (average) 45 1.65 0.43Bermuda (lowest) 1 0.00 0.00

LD: from highest to lowest

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IBCD has three interrelated measures:

• IBCD-RICH – unadjusted counts of a country’s BCD richness

• IBCD-AREA – BCD richness adjusted for a country’s land area

• IBCD-POP – BCD richness adjusted for a country’s population size

Expected diversity is based on the species/area

relationshiplog S = c + z log A

where S = number of species, A = area, and c and z are constants derived from observation

IBCD-AREA: expected log Ni = c + z log Ai

IBCD-POP: expected log Ni = c + z log Pi

IBCD-AREABirds&Mammals-Area Curve

y = 0.3261x + 0.8557R2 = 0.7101

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IBCD-AREA

IBCD-POP

Terralingua 2006

Future directions• Continue to seek more and better data for the

IBCD; develop time-series data• Adapt methodology of IBCD to global Index of

Linguistic Diversity (ILD)• Develop indicator of Traditional Environmental

Knowledge (TEK)• Possible tie-ins to UNEP programs and CBD

2010 Target