Launch of UNESCO website on the International Year of Indigenous languages (2019)

UNESCO has launched their “2019 International Year of Indigenous languages” website on August 9th to coincide with the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples.

The right to speak and receive education in mother tongue is a fundamental right of indigenous peoples, but languages disappear at an alarming rate. This has impacts on cultural diversity but also on the traditional use and governance of biological diversity as traditional knowledge and practices can often only be captured and transmitted in indigenous languages and vocabularies.

Languages are a key component of indigenous peoples’ cultural identity and underpin indigenous and local knowledge systems.

FPP supports indigenous networks to raise wider awareness and recognition of these important inter-connections and supports initiatives to revive or strengthen communities’ culture and knowledge bases, so that these can continue to inform governance, management and development of customary territories, contributing to conservation and sustainable use of their resources, as well as to communities’ resilience, livelihoods, and well-being.

We look forward to supporting indigenous language champions in 2019 and beyond.