UNEP sees globalization as threat to indigenous cultures

The UN Environment Program is warning that nature's secrets, locked away in the songs, stories, art and handicrafts of indigenous people, may be lost forever as a result of growing globalization.

"The freeing up of markets around the world may well be the key to economic growth in rich and poor countries alike. But this must not happen at the expense of the thousands of indigenous cultures and their traditions," UNEP's executive director, Klaus Toepfer said in Nairobi Wednesday.

He said, "Indigenous peoples not only have a right to preserve their way of life, but they also hold vital knowledge on the animals and plants with which they live. Enshrined in their cultures and customs are also secrets of how to manage habitats and the land in environmentally friendly, sustainable, ways."

Toepfer explained that much of this knowledge is passed down from generation to generation orally, in art works or in the designs of handicrafts such as baskets, rather than being written down.

So losing a language and its cultural context is like burning a unique reference book of the natural world, he told the 21st session of UNEP's Governing Council in Nairobi.

Research, done on behalf of UNEP and drawing on work by hundreds of academics, highlights the way native farmers in parts of West and East Africa (such as the Fulbe of Benin and tribes in Tanzania) find and encourage termite mounds to boost the fertility and moisture content of the soil.

Meanwhile, the Turkana tribe of Kenya plan crop planting around an intimate knowledge of the behavior of frogs and birds, such as the ground hornbill, green wood hoopoe, spotted eagle owl and nightjar, which are revered as "prophets of rain."

The research claims many indigenous languages and cultures are already teetering on the brink of extinction in the face of globalization.

The report also links a profusion of languages with a wealth of wildlife underscoring how native peoples have thrived on a rich natural environment and managed it for the benefit of animals and plants. But encroachment by western-style civilization and its farming methods mean that many of these varieties, encouraged by tribal and native people, are fast disappearing along with their genetic diversity.

Studies estimate that there are 5,000 to 7,000 spoken languages in the world with 4,000 to 5,000 of these classed as indigenous.