227et al., 2003). According to data provided by Terralin-
gua, in the world there are from 6 000 to 7 000 dif-
ferent languages, of which 9 5 percent is the mother
tongue of less than one million people. However,
linguistic diversity cannot be regarded as the only
benchmark. Other factors that relate to the cultural
life of a community, such as traditions, folk festi-
vals, events, rituals, social practices, all that intan-
gible cultural heritage referred to in the 2003
UNESCO Convention on World Heritage Intangible
Heritage need to be analysed.
- The world of agriculture and biocultural diversity
The close relationship between biological diversity
and cultural diversity is evident especially if you look
at global food trends. In other words this relation-
ship can be emphasized as the c.d. agrobiodiversity
that can be considered, in itself, an effective index
for understanding both the causes and conse-
quences of the loss of biocultural diversity.
According to FAO (1998 data) the plant species used
for food production are about 7 000, but today only 3 0
are under cultivation, and of these, rice, wheat and
corn alone cover 50 percent of needs World Food. The
loss or abandonment of these crops can be explained
by several factors, primarily cultural, in a globalized
world, the food seems to be the main victim of the
“trend” diet, and it is not just a matter of “appeal”.
The disappearance of some traditional food is closely
related to non-transmission, from parents to children,
of the methods of production or storage or handling
of food. With a further consequence: the loss of
knowledge related to the cultivation of the plant
species, which is the prelude to their ultimate demise.
The available data are alarming in this respect: just
after the Second World War, China, for example, had
10 000 cultivated varieties of wheat, in the 1970s just
under 1 000, today about 200. In Mexico, over the
past fifty years, 80% of maize varieties, the product
symbol of Mexican cuisine, have been lost. In the
United States, 95% of the varieties of cabbage, 86%
of apples, peas 94%, 81% of tomatoes have disap-
peared at the same time (Buiatti, 2007, p. 109).
4. The role of UNESCO: 2003 Convention and the
Mediterranean diet
UNESCO stands internationally as the only global
organization that within its conventions and pro-
grammes embraces the concepts of nature and cul-
ture, biological and genetic diversity and cultural
and linguistic diversity.
Cultural diversity, as it has been mentioned, was, in
fact, subject to specific conventions adopted by UN-
ESCO: the Convention on Cultural Heritage in 1972,
the Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage of
2 003, the Convention on Cultural Diversity of 2005.
Even before the adoption of these international con-
ventions, within UNESCO in 1971 was launched, the
Programme MAB – Man and Biosphere, which im-
mediately turned his attention to the protection of
biodiversity in the traditional sense and conserva-
tion and strategic management of biodiversity.
Founded in the wake of the UNESCO Declaration of
Principles of International Cultural Cooperation in
1966, the need to identify and ensure protection
measures for the so-called “Intangible Heritage” in
its various cultural forms and in the interaction be-
tween human activity and both physical and social
environment, was clear since 1972, the adoption of
the best known UNESCO Convention for the Protec-
tion of Cultural Heritage and World Heritage.
Since then, concepts such as folklore, oral expres-
sions, traditional techniques of land management
and artistic representations of identity and creativ-
ity have been revised several times over several
sessions until the adoption, during the 32nd Gen-
eral Conference in 200 3 , of an ad hoc instrument,
the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangi-
ble Cultural Heritage, signed on 17 October 200 3.
The intangible heritage, according to the list pro-
vided by Article 2 , para. 2 , is detectable in 5 areas
(oral traditions and expressions, including language
as a vehicle of intangible cultural heritage, perform-
ing arts, social practices, rituals and festive events;
the knowledge and practices concerning nature and
universe, traditional craftsmanship). This list does
not appear, however, mandatory in nature; espe-